Say 'G'day Mate' to the New Air Australia
After the bad news of Qantas' major shutdown over the weekend, there is finally some good news coming from Australia. The 2-year-old Strategic Airlines is going through a re-branding and calling themselves "Air Australia." The simple name is to stay close to their Aussie roots, not to mention that the name makes heaps more sense.
Strategic entered the game in Oz back in 2009 with an aircraft base out of Brisbane. Essentially they fit right into the niche between Virgin Australia and Qantas with 2-class aircraft and all-the-frills cabin service.
With domestic services flying between main cities and mining locales, Strategic also takes their all-Airbus fleet internationally to Bali, Phuket and Honolulu to capitalize on the holiday-maker market. Eventually Air Australia will be flying their birds to China as well; nothing is confirmed, but we're thinking Beijing and Shanghai.
The new livery—a fresh new green and gold with stylized boomerang—gets us psyched to do some plane spotting. What really makes us excited is that, with the new color scheme, comes a new carrier to compete with Jetstar and, since Singapore is so close to Australia, Scoot.
The one thing that doesn't really get our wanderlust flowing is the imminent introduction of baggage fees and buy-on-board meals. Trust that we'll be keeping an eye out, not only for how Air Australia shakes up the hot market down under, but also for how the flight attendants look in green and gold.
The official switch from Strategic to Air Australia happens on November 15, with the new livery taking to the skies as early as November 4th.
[Photo: Herald Sun/AFP]
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