Kendell Airlines was a regional airline in Australia, in the 1990s the largest in the country. It served major regional centres in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania from Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney. Many of its services were in co-operation with its parent company Ansett Australia from the 1990s.

The airline was founded in 1967 as Premiair Aviation by aviation enthusiast Don Kendell and partners, originally serving as an air charter provider and flying school, based in Wagga Wagga. In 1971, the name of the company was changed to Kendell Airlines, which coincided with the launch of scheduled services using Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft between Wagga Wagga and Melbourne, a route which had previously been operated by Ansett Airlines (later called Ansett Australia). Shortly afterwards, the route network was expanded with flights to Sydney and Canberra.

Flight operations saw a further increase when de Havilland Heron and Swearingen Metro II aircraft were added to the fleet, the latter in May 1979 following the Second Oil Crisis. On 25 February 1985 the airline introduced the 34-seat Saab 340, a more modern regional airliner; Kendell was the first airline in the southern hemisphere to operate the Saab 340, with further aircraft of that type being added over the following years. The route network was nearly doubled in early 1986 when the South Australian routes of Airlines of South Australia (which was owned by Ansett) were taken over as a consequence of the deregulation of the Australian airline market. During the 1990s, Kendell established further operating bases to add to its original one at Wagga Wagga Airport, namely at Devonport Airport, Albury Airport and Sydney Airport, which was due to the airline becoming a subsidiary of Ansett.

...
Wikipedia