Ansett staff receive another dividend

Long-suffering staff of collapsed airline Ansett has received another dividend from the administrators accompanied by a caution they will never receive their full entitlements

A $15.3 million payment would be made this week – the eighth payout since the airline went belly-up in September 2001.

Today’s dividend brings to $676.2 million the total payments made to Ansett’s 15,000 former staff.

The employees are owed a total of $760 million and that is unlikely to ever be repaid in full.

On average, employees will receive over 90 cents in the dollar of their entitlements”.

The latest payout follows further sales of Ansett assets since December 2006.

The administrators have sold the business assets at the Ansett’s maintenance base at Melbourne Airport to John Holland Aviation Services.

The eighth dividend payment is 10 per cent of each employee’s outstanding entitlements.
The payments will average $1,000 per employee, with some employees receiving more than $9000.

Of the $15.3 million dividend this week, $9.3 million goes to former Ansett employees and $6 million to the federal government to repay staff entitlements previously advanced under a special assistance program.

Further dividends will be paid over the next one to two years dependent on further asset sales.

Ansett was the Australia’s second largest airline when it was placed into voluntary administration the day after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US in 2001.