Sir Reg Ansett….sour old skinflint

Will Richards was just days old when he had his first flights in a corporate jet and the helicopter that chauffeured his famous grandfather, Reginald Ansett, from his waterfront estate to work in Melbourne every day.
Sir Reginald’s airline was still a potent force and Mr Richards remembers playing in his grandfather’s office with the models of the planes it had acquired over the years.

But if he thought being the grandson of the aviation pioneer would give him easy access to the industry which increasingly intrigued him, he had a hard lesson coming.

Three decades later, Mr Richards has resurrected the family name as Melbourne-based Ansett Aviation and is doing the hard yards to re-establish it as an industry presence.

But the name and Ansett’s original arrow-head logo are the only legacy of his grandfather’s once-powerful aviation empire.

Sir Reginald believed his five children needed to make it under their own steam and left nothing to the family, ordering in his will that all his assets be sold after the death of his wife, with the money given to charity.

Mr Richards, 30, was even forced to bid at auction to get back the model planes he played with as a child.

“I spent about three and a half, four grand on those. I just wish I’d have stolen them years ago,” he says. “And I’m spending more money fixing them up because when I was young fellow flying around my grandfather’s study, I broke some of them.”

Nor has the path back into aviation been easy: Mr Richards earned his stripes helicopter mustering in the Northern Territory after working as jackaroo there and in the northwest.

With several years of helicopter and fixed-wing experience under his belt, he started Ansett Aviation 18 months ago with the encouragement of some of his grandfather’s old friends.

“My grandfather was a very hard man, he didn’t leave much to the family and they said: ‘Basically this is your inheritance’,” he says. “I’m starting a business from scratch, I haven’t got anyone who’s bankrolling me or anything like this. Everything’s on my own back.”

From its beginnings as an executive helicopter service the company has expanded its activities and now arranges all forms of corporate transport in Australia and overseas. “I supply them with limousines, supply them with helicopters, with buses, large jets and small jets,” he says.

“As well, there’s corporate tourism, which is pretty huge.”

Ultimately, the budding aviation executive would like to see Ansett re-emerge as an airline.

However, he has seen enough of the industry to know that finding the right niche for another airline will be a daunting task.

“Other companies have tried it and failed,” he says. “My ambition is to take my small airline to that stage, but we’ve got to find a niche in the market and in the meantime we’re going to press on with corporate transport.”