East-West Airlines (Australia)
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| Founded | 23 June 1947 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 31 October 1993 | ||||||
| Headquarters | Tamworth, Australia | ||||||
| Key people | Bryan Grey | ||||||
East-West Airlines was an Australian regional airline founded in Tamworth, New South Wales in 1947. It operated to major regional city-centres and connected these centres to various state capitals, and by the 1980s it was Australia's third largest domestic airline. It also carried out its own heavy maintenance in Tamworth and operated a network of Travel Centres.
East-West Airlines was founded in 1947 with funds raised from about 800 mainly small investors with the aim to "fight the city based airline monopolies" and traded forthwith as an unlisted public company. At this early time, the workforce consisted of the manager who was Basil Brown, and the maintenance engineer and workshop manager, who was Cedric Wood. Cedric Wood was an exceptional aircraft engineer, having an unblemished maintenance record, despite having nine separate aircraft maintenance licences to his name. Enabling the company to operate maintenance procedures on a 'shoe string' budget. Initially, using single-engine Tiger Moth aircraft, East-West established Australia's first regular mail delivery service between Tamworth NSW, Port Maquarie and Newcastle. The company bought twin-engine Avro Anson aircraft which allowed it to carry more mail and passengers.
East-West acquired several Douglas DC-3s starting in 1953 and these 28-seat aircraft steadily replaced the smaller Avro Ansons in operating scheduled services throughout New South Wales. The last example was disposed in 1973 having latterly been operated on research flights into microwave landing systems for CSIRO.
It grew in the following years from an intrastate operator to Australia's third largest domestic carrier which owned by 1982 ten Fokker aircraft. By that time East-West was also about to acquire its first jet aircraft. It was however still reeling from a venture into the Northern Territory in 1980, which incurred heavy losses. This caused also a falling out among board members. East-West, already in 1981 in an era still governed by the Two Airlines Policy, became the first "third" carrier operating between Sydney and Canberra. Between 1977 and 1990 it operated services to Norfolk Island.
In 1982 former Ansett and Air Niugini executive Bryan Grey, in partnership with former Citicorp Australia merchant banking executive Duke Minks, formed East-West Development Pty Ltd with the specific purpose to acquire East-West Airlines. With a loan of $ 8.5 million from the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust they purchased East-West in a share buy-out. The take over was deemed controversial, as discussions queried how far the involvement of Nauruan capital constituted quasi a foreign takeover.
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