Ansett Australia is back. But not as you know it
More than 20 years after its final flight, Ansett is making a comeback.
Melbourne-based technology entrepreneur Constantine Frantzeskos has revived the Ansett brand, bringing back the iconic Australian airline as an AI-powered travel agency.
The Ansett Travel platform, which is now live, is designed as a hyper-personalised travel concierge that will offer predictive trip recommendations and itineraries based on a customers' preference, budget and calendar events.
'Ansett was such a wonderful, innovative brand. It was a pioneer of great service, they were the first ones to bring business class to Australia, and they were loved by their customers,' Frantzeskos said in an interview.
'I thought wouldn't it be a cool thing to genuinely bring this brand back to life. And that's what I'm doing, I'm building the personal travel agent of the future.
'This will be a travel agent that understands you, your family, your needs, your budget and where you've been. That's the vision.'
Ansett had operated for 65 years and was the nation's second-largest airline before it was grounded in late 2001, with some 16,000 jobs lost as a result. Its downfall was seen at the time as a 'perfect storm' of poor culture, financial strain, union issues and fleet mismanagement.
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