Impulse Airlines Sold to Qantas

Qantas Airways confirmed today that the shareholders of Impulse Airlines had decided to exercise their option to sell the business as a going concern to Qantas.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer, Geoff Dixon, said the Impulse shareholders would exit the business entirely with Qantas assuming full ownership from this afternoon.

Mr Dixon said the ownership change was in accordance with the terms of a commercial relationship signed in May this year in which Impulse contracted its aircraft to Qantas, after deciding to withdraw from operating scheduled services in its own right.

He said Impulse would continue to operate under the QantasLink brand, now as a wholly-owned subsidiary together with the four other QantasLink regional airlines - Airlink, Eastern Australia Airlines, Southern Australia Airlines and Sunstate Airlines.

The Impulse fleet of eight Boeing 717 jets and 13 Beechcraft 1900D aircraft would continue to fly QantasLink services. All pilots, flight attendants, engineers and ground staff would remain employed by Impulse Airlines as a subsidiary of Qantas.

Mr Dixon said the change would not affect customer arrangements for bookings and airport procedures as these had been handled by Qantas since Impulse ceased operating in its own right in May.

He also announced the appointment of Mr Bevan Coote, previously General Manager Eastern Australia Airlines, as General Manager of the Impulse operation.