Ansett to soar again - maybe

Air New Zealand's former Australian subsidiary Ansett could be about to fly again - in name at least.

Ex-Ansett employee Jens Buche is plotting a fifth Australian domestic airline - RMA Gold Airways - named after Ansett's founder Reginald Miles Ansett.

Buche - through his other brainchild, Pacific Southwest Engineering, a company specialising in "total airline development solutions" - has completed business plans for a "large domestic airline operating A320 aircraft in Australasia".

He says the airline will begin operating from Melbourne "around the end of this year".

But there's a catch. Despite Buche's enthusiasm, the airline has no major financial backers, no aircraft and no operator's certificate.

Not to be deterred, RMA Gold has begun recruiting staff - from aircraft engineers to call centre workers, about 300 in total.

The 54-year-old Melbourne man has placed a media blackout on his exact plans, but will face tough competition from Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Blue and possibly fledgling budget business carrier OzJet.

Ansett was an iconic Australian airline, with a history dating back to 1935. The airline prospered from the post-war years until the 1980s.

But it hit the rocks when some of its investments performed badly, such as a share in US airline America West, which filed for bankruptcy but survived, and Hamilton Island resort, which went into receivership.

The airline disposed of non-core assets and was the official sponsor of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but liquidity problems resurfaced and in September 2001 Air New Zealand placed it in administration.

A plan was hatched to launch "Ansett II" under a new management structure as Tesna Holdings (Tesna being "Ansett" backwards). That failed and the last Ansett flight was on March 5, 2002.

- NZPA