in 1936 On 19 March 1932
Flinders Island Airways began a regular aerial service using the
Desoutter Mk.II VH-UEE
Miss Flinders between
Launceston, Tasmania and
Flinders Island in
Bass Strait, which competed with shipping services offered by
William Holyman & Sons. Due to
monopoly arrangements with other Australian shipowners, Holymans (as it was known) was only allowed to carry passengers on internal Tasmanian routes, and resented the intrusion. Brothers Captain
Victor Holyman and
Ivan Holyman purchased a
de Havilland D.H.83 Fox Moth VH-UQM
Miss Currie which entered service on the same route on 1 October 1932, and soon amalgamated with Flinders Island Airways to form
Tasmanian Aerial Services Pty Ltd. They later purchased a
de Havilland D.H.84 Dragon VH-URD
Miss Launceston that began a regular service between
Melbourne, Flinders Island and Launceston in September 1933. Following the
Government of Australia's announcement of the
Empire Air Mail Scheme late in 1933, Holymans entered into a partnership with the two main shipping companies servicing Tasmania,
Huddart Parker and the
Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, to form an equal-share partnership in a new '''Holyman's Airways Pty Ltd'
headed by Ivan Holyman. The new company, with a capital of £90,000, was registered in July 1934, and ordered two de Havilland D.H.86 Express airliners. The first of these, VH-URN Miss Hobart'', began operating across Bass Strait on 28 September 1934, but went missing just three weeks later, on 18 October, and was believed to have crashed off
Wilsons Promontory. Captain Victor Holyman's was one of the eleven lives lost. Undaunted, Holyman's Airways purchased a second-hand D.H.84 (VH-URG
Golden West) and ordered two more D.H.86s, and soon began to expand operations throughout south-eastern Australia. A route from Melbourne to
Sydney via
Canberra was established in 1935 using D.H.86 VH-UUB
Loila. On the day of a first proving flight between the capitals, 2 October, another D.H.86, VH-URT
Loina, crashed into Bass Strait off Flinders Island killing all five on board. The Melbourne to Sydney flights, the first regular daily airmail service between the two centres, commenced on 7 October. After a non-fatal accident in Bass Strait to the D.H.86 VH-USW
Lepena on 13 December 1935, Ivan Holyman used his influence with the Australian Government to have an official ban on the importation of United States built commercial aircraft to be lifted, and Holyman's Airways ordered an example of the recently introduced
Douglas DC-2. It entered service as VH-USY
Bungana on 18 May 1936. In 1946, the main aircraft flown by both ANA and TAA on interstate services were DC-3s, but both airlines soon acquired small numbers of
Douglas DC-4s for long-distance and high-capacity services. ANA's attempts to further improve its fleet were hamstrung by such factors as insufficient finance and, when finance was available, Government refusal to allow large foreign currency purchases to the detriment of the national balance of trade. In the late 1940s, TAA began acquiring
Convair 240s, which were a pressurised improvement over the DC-3. ANA was not then in a financial position to begin replacing its DC-3s with more modern aircraft. When finally able to purchase new aircraft for long-range services, ANA chose the pressurised
Douglas DC-6B whereas TAA acquired the
Vickers Viscount. Although the DC-6B was a more economical aircraft to operate than the smaller Viscount, passengers preferred the Viscount, which was faster and, being a
turboprop aircraft, had a quieter cabin with less vibration. The government declined the offer. After initially dismissing his offer, the ANA board began talking with
Reg Ansett, head of the much smaller
Ansett Transport Industries; with its main interstate operation Ansett Airways. ANA was sold to Ansett, on 3 October 1957, for £3.3 million. The two airlines were merged to form
Ansett-ANA on 21 October 1957 and the name was retained until 1 November 1968 when it was renamed Ansett Airlines of Australia. ==Accidents and incidents==