David Eyre 
Photo © David Eyre
12 August 2011 – UPDATED 2 September 2011:
Strategic Airlines has been renamed as Air Australia, is restructuring from being a full-service carrier to a low-cost carrier, and will start new international and domestic services.
Air Australia aims to compete with Tiger Airways Australia, whose public image has suffered significantly during the 6-week safety grounding imposed by CASA. As Virgin has moved upmarket to focus on high-yield and corporate passengers, the new Air Australia will also seek to capture some of Virgin’s original passenger market.
Advertising agency Cummins-Ross were appointed to create the new international Australian brand. The official date for the rebrand is 30 October 2011, which is the date by which the first repainted A320, new uniforms and updated interiors will be completed.
However, artist impressions of aircraft in the new branding were revealed on 2 September 2011. It includes a white fuselage with a stylised lime green boomerang, with a boomerang and sunburst on the tail. The sun is to represent Strategic’s history as an Australian Defence Force charter company. The word “Air” in Air Australia is silver grey to represents koalas and grey kangaroos. The lime green with a hint of gold is to reflect Australia’s sporting green and gold colours. Photo of the new colors: HERE
One of the Europe-based A320s is being transferred back to Australia in October. The other two Europe-based A320s will stay in Strategic Airlines colours, but one of these may come to Australia in early 2012.
Repainting is to be done by MAS Engineering & Maintenance in Subang, Malaysia. The A320s will all be repainted by the end of 2011, and the A330s by February 2012. Some sources have reported that two of Air Australia’s A320s have already been painted in the new colours. The third and fourth will be repainted during C-Check overhauls at MAS Engineering in October and November 2011.
The airline currently has two A330-200s and declared earlier this year that it will boost this to seven leased Airbus A330s in the next three years – the first of these is due early in 2012. The current fleet of three A320s will increase to four in October and a fifth A320 may join the fleet early in 2012. The airline is recruiting pilots and flight attendants and will add an A320 pilot base to the established A330 operation in Melbourne, and has a new engineering base at Brisbane.
The airline will start services in December from eastern states cities as follows:
INTERNATIONAL Brisbane-Honolulu Brisbane-Bali (extra services) Brisbane – Phuket Melbourne–Honolulu Melbourne–Phuket
DOMESTIC Brisbane-Melbourne
The Perth-Derby (Curtin) services currently operated by Strategic will continue.
Strategic Airlines will stop flying between Perth and Bali on Saturday 29 October 2011, a route currently serviced by Airbus A320s four times per week.
Luke Chittock advised that prior to the cessation of services, a number of flights will be cancelled, hence the revised schedule below:
- WED services – 12OCT only will operate
- FRI services – 05AUG, 30SEP, 07OCT, 14OCT will operate
- SAT services – last flight will be 29OCT
- SUN services – last flight will be 09OCT
Strategic Airlines flew its first service from Perth to Bali on 15 June 2010, but the airline is restructuring its operations, and decided to withdraw from the route due to heavy competition. The Perth/Bali (Denpasar) route is hotly contested with the following airlines operating:
- Jetstar (1 daily flight)
- Virgin Australia (1 daily flight)
- Garuda (3 flights daily)
- Indonesia AirAsia (3 flights daily)
- Skywest also flies to Bali from Broome via Port Hedland, using Fokker 100s.
