Impulse Airlines

Impulse Airlines was founded by Gerry and Sue McGowan, commencing operations on 18 December 1992 following the acquisition of Port Macquarie based Oxley Airlines.[1] In April 1994, it was rebranded as Impulse Airlines.[2] In May 1994 Impulse purchased Pacific Aviation from Ansett Transport Industries.[3]

It operated a network of regional routes throughout New South Wales and into Queensland. The network included routes to Armidale, Barcaldine, Biloela, Blackwater, Brisbane, Canberra, Coffs Harbour, Coolangatta, Cooma, Grafton, Glen Innes, Hervey Bay, Kempsey, Maroochydore, Maryborough, Melbourne, Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Roma, Sydney, Taree and Tamworth. The airline operated a fleet of Beechcraft 1900 aircraft. It was affiliated with the Ansett frequent flyer programme and its flights had designated AN flight numbers.

In August 1994, Impulse Airlines expanded its fleet and became the first Australian operator of the BAe Jetstream 41. It acquired five of the type in 1994 and had planned to acquire a further five in 1996. Impulse used the aircraft to pioneer non-stop services between Newcastle and Melbourne but was soon met with competition from Qantas who utilised the much larger BAe 146 on the route. Impulse was forced to discontinue the services and withdraw the Jetstream 41s from service. After Qantas lost interest in the route following Impulse's withdrawal, Impulse eventually re-entered the route with Beech 1900s in February 1997.

In June 2000, the airline acquired Boeing 717 jet aircraft and commenced operations as a low-cost airline on Australia's trunk eastern seaboard routes in direct competition with Ansett and Qantas.[4] It had ceased its previous affiliation with Ansett. Services initially operated between Sydney and Melbourne and quickly expanded to include Brisbane, Newcastle and Hobart.[5] Together with Virgin Blue which also commenced services in mid-2000, Impulse Airlines brought upon a substantial restructuring of the Australian airline industry. The new low cost entrants injected competition into the long-lived duopoly between Qantas and Ansett, arguably contributing to the downfall of the latter. The airline gradually began to phase in a bright blue livery with a cockatoo on the tail of its aircraft.

In April 2001, Impulse and Qantas came to an agreement where Impulse would wet lease all its services to Qantas with Qantas to market the routes and give Impulse a cash injection with a further option for Qantas to buy out the company.[6] Qantas exercised its option in November 2001, and Impulse was absorbed into QantasLink.[7][8][9] The introduction of the cockatoo livery did not progress beyond a few aircraft. Both the Boeing 717 and Beech 1900 aircraft were initially utilised in the QantasLink fleet however the Beech 1900s were soon withdrawn from service while the Boeing 717 fleet was expanded.

In April 2003, following a long running investigation by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, Rene Rivkin was found guilty of insider trading after having purchased 50,000 Qantas shares which resulted in a $346,000 profit. He was charged with using confidential and market-sensitive information with regards to an impending merger of Qantas and Impulse Airlines. He bought these shares on behalf of Rivkin Investments on 24 April 2001, just hours after speaking to the executive chairman of Impulse, Gerry McGowan.[10]

The airline was a major sponsor of the Newcastle Knights National Rugby League team.

After QantasLink had acquired the 717 fleet in 2001 it was planned that Qantas would use it as a base for a budget airline to be launched in 2003. Impulse Airline's former 717s were used for Jetstar's initial fleet when the airline officially launched domestic passenger service between Newcastle and Melbourne on 24 May 2004, one day before Impulse Airlines ceased operations.

The facilities developed by Impulse Airlines for its Newcastle base continued to be used as a heavy maintenance base for Jetstar until June 2020, despite Jetstar's headquarters being in Melbourne.[11]