I can understand the bitterness about the failure of Ansett (and believe me, I'm upset about it too - everything I've heard about it indicated it was a great airline to fly and I was looking forward to trying it out myself, having just moved to Sydney), but comments like the one above wishing that Air New Zealand will collapse too, and claims never to set foot again on NZ, are absurd and insensitive.

There is no doubt that AirNZ have mismanaged Ansett in the last couple of years; however the asset they took over with such haste and at a stupidly high price was already in a critical condition. Ansett has been appallingly managed for decades! I'm not saying don't blame NZ at all, but to my mind the real villains of the piece are those at News International etc who managed Ansett solely in a way to make it attractive for sale, chose to ignore any long-term implications of their actions, and walked away with handsome profits having fleeced AirNZ out of $1.2 billion... an investment which AirNZ have seen reduced to one dollar. This is the biggest corporate loss in New Zealand history by a large margin, and cutting Ansett adrift was the only way to ensure all of Air New Zealand's employees etc (and AirNZ's operations overall are, at the moment, modestly profitable) didn't also go down as a result of the mess in Australia - a situation which would not have benefited anyone.

The thought of only having Qantas to choose from on the majority of domestic routes fills me with horror, especially having experienced their appalling inflight service (and uncomfortable seats, and rude counter staff who would not even apologise for the fact our flight was cancelled without any notification, and the so-called 'food' in that ridiculous and environmentally unfriendly box) from Sydney to Melbourne last weekend.

So, my point is: one great airline down, and one on its knees - it's a sad day, but lets focus on supporting whatever emerges from this mess, rather than declaring war on NZ!

Holding out for some good news,

mad_atta