05-08-2025
Qantas, Virgin's new competitor Bill Astling's Koala Airlines to fly from 2026
The founder of an airline preparing to take on Qantas and Virgin says they do have an air operators certificate, and expect to start flying with three aircraft from late 2026.
Koala Airlines chief executive Bill Astling has hit back at the 'doubters' who have already written off the carrier as a pipe dream that will never make it into the air.
Mr Astling said when he bought Desert Air in 2018, he inherited their AOC which is valid until May 2027.
'What we don't have on the AOC is the aircraft type, because Desert Air operated a lot of smaller aircraft,' said Mr Astling.
'But we do have one, despite what people might think.'
He said Koala Airlines had also 'secured aircraft' but he would not say what type or where the planes would come from.
There was a need for confidentiality to 'look after certain shareholders who don't want this thing broadcast all over the place,' he added.
'If I'm opening a store I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to sell 18 months before I start, or even what's in the store,' Mr Astling said.
'When the time is right I will start talking about it.'
A surprise attendee at the recent CAPA Airline Leaders Summit in Cairns, Mr Astling said he used the event to network, meeting with airports and the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.
The aviation industry veteran previously ran cargo airline Air Express in the late 1970s and early 1980s and is no stranger to the fierce competition among carriers.
'I know the games that the big boys play, I've been in it, and I've seen how they fight and how they wanted to just get rid of you,' he said of a court battle with Ansett over Australia's two airline policy in which Air Express was ultimately successful.
'So we do have experience of dealing with some of these problems.'
He said one mistake he wouldn't make was to 'poke the bear' in the same fashion as Rex did with Qantas.
'We're not going to criticise Qantas. I mean Qantas came under a lot of fire from Rex and look how that worked out,' said Mr Astling.
'If you don't like the heat in the oven, don't get into the oven.'
He remained tightlipped on their business model, only saying they would 'do things differently' to the current players and those who came before them — such as Bonza, Compass and Air Australia.
The size of the challenge was not lost on him however, but he was hopeful changes to slot management in Sydney and tougher anti-competitive laws would work in their favour.
'The sort of predatory pricing we saw when Rex was trying to fly major city routes, was dreadful and bad for the country,' Mr Astling said.
'I mean between Qantas and Virgin — they've got 230 aircraft, and if we're lucky enough to start late next year we'll have three. We're going to be a pimple on an elephant's back.'
Industry insiders remained sceptical of Koala Airlines' future at a time when Qantas and Virgin appeared to be going from strength to strength.
There was also change afoot in the regional space, with far north Queensland's Skytrans rebranding as SmartLynx under new owners Avia Solutions Group, and another Cairns' carrier East Air thought to be sizing up regular public transport routes. Read related topics: Qantas Robyn Ironside Aviation Writer
Robyn Ironside is The Australian's aviation writer, and has twice been recognised by the Australasian Aviation Press Club (in 2020 and 2023) as the best aviation journalist. She has been with The Australian since 2018, and covered aviation for News Corp since 2014 after previously reporting on Queensland state politics and crime with The Courier-Mail. Aviation
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