Qantas was the obvious choice. And besides, there was not a good feeling there with Ansett. And it's all in Qantas' favor. It allows McGowan to keep all his airline, rather than the bits of it he had to share with the big end of town. But Dixon gets a load more.
Impulse is about as lean as airline operations get.
On Thursday, Ansett put an alternative bid to the ACCC to buy Impulse - saying it would fight the proposed alliance in the courts. But in reality, Ansett was never in the running. It had never, argued McGowan, become nasty. But the same could not be said for Ansett. No longer could Impulse passengers buy tickets through Ansett outlets or use Ansett terminals.