Ansett name makes comeback – from airline to AI-powered travel agency

The Ansett brand is making a comeback – this time as an AI-powered travel agency. Photo / news.com.au

More than 20 years after closing its doors, Ansett is back – this time, as an AI-powered travel agency.

Ansett Airlines – later Ansett Australia – served as the country’s second-largest airline since 1936 before it was placed into voluntary administration and ceased operations in 2002, resulting in a loss of 16,000 jobs.

Before its closure, the airline was once a mainstay of Australian culture as one of the major sponsors of the AFL and the major sponsor for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

An Ansett British Aerospace (BAe) 146 'Whisper' jet in the foreground at Auckland Airport when the airline was operating in 1999. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Last month, Melbourne entrepreneur Constatine Frantzeskos announced the airline’s return as an AI-powered travel agency after “the famous Ansett trademark had lapsed”.

“Ansett is back – reborn as Australia’s first truly AI-run travel agency,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

“I registered the trademark, created a fleet of AI agents, and – thanks to a tech integration with Travlr – have now turned Ansett into a one-founder online travel agency.”

The Ansett Travel website is powered by AI and designed to offer a “personalised” experience.

“We use a combination of large language models, recommendation systems, and predictive pricing engines,” the website read.

“Our AI helps personalise your journey, surface better deals faster, and automate the back-end processes that traditional OTAs still handle manually.”

According to the company’s website, the travel agency operates with 500 airlines and three million hotels and aims to “(revive) a trusted name” and “(give) it a new identity”.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Frantzeskos said Ansett Travel was “building the personal travel agent of the future”.

According to the website, the company is not “trading on nostalgia”.

“The Ansett name still holds meaning – especially for Australians who remember a time when travel felt innovative, considered, personal, and premium,” the website read.

“We’re not trading on nostalgia – we’re reviving a trusted name and giving it a new identity: intelligent, intuitive, and value-driven.”