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Home»AIRLINE NEWS» AI Meets Travel: The Return of Ansett as an Intelligent Global Booking Platform
Monday, July 28, 2025
More than 20 years after it disappeared from our skies, Ansett – once the face of air travel in Australia – has been resurrected in a design that feels decidedly futuristic. But now, it’s not flying planes. The world’s favourite airline has reinvented themselves to become a 100% AI-based online travel agency which links you to the most efficient, affordable and personalised booking services in the world.
The resurrection is by Melbourne entrepreneur Constantine Frantzeskos who spotted the potential of the defunct brand and pounced when time was up on its trademark. He wasn’t aiming to get Ansett back in the air but rather to leverage its track record of reliability in the travel tech business.
From National Airline to Tech-Forward Agency
Originally founded in 1936, Ansett Airlines, later known as Ansett Australia, was one of the country’s most trusted domestic carriers. It held a prominent position in Australian life, with major sponsorship roles including the AFL and the 2000 Sydney Olympics. However, due to financial turbulence and market shifts, Ansett entered voluntary administration and ceased all operations in 2002. This closure impacted more than 16,000 employees and marked the end of an aviation era.
Frantzeskos, known for his work in the Australian digital innovation space, has now repurposed the Ansett legacy into Ansett Travel, Australia’s first entirely AI-operated travel booking platform. The company was launched following the successful acquisition of the expired Ansett trademark.
A Travel Agency Built by AI
According to information available on the official Ansett Travel website and government-verified domain registration records, the company leverages a combination of large language models, predictive pricing engines, and recommendation algorithms to provide users with an intelligent, intuitive booking experience.
Frantzeskos explained via a LinkedIn announcement that he had “assembled a fleet of AI agents” and built the agency with full tech integration using tools provided by the Travlr platform—a known player in online travel booking systems. The goal, he says, is to redefine how Australians interact with travel planning by replacing conventional steps with intelligent automation.
This smart technology enables the platform to streamline complex tasks that most traditional Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) still perform manually. It can suggest tailored itineraries, adjust pricing in real-time, and provide instantaneous support—without requiring human travel agents behind the screen.
A Global Network with Local Identity
Ansett Travel boasts access to over 500 airline carriers and three million hotels worldwide, positioning it as a serious player among travel platforms. While still new, the agency’s digital infrastructure is built to compete with global platforms by offering faster results, superior customisation, and fully automated service.
The platform’s emphasis is not just on function but also on rebuilding trust with Australian travellers. The tagline: “Reviving a trusted name, reimagined with a new identity”, underlines this dual mission—honouring its legacy while embracing the digital future.
The Rise of AI in Travel
The relaunch of Ansett aligns with global shifts toward automation in the travel sector. As major online booking systems like Expedia and Booking.com increasingly experiment with AI tools, Ansett Travel positions itself as Australia’s local answer to this evolving trend—offering a homegrown solution built from scratch with AI at its core.
Importantly, the Australian Government’s Digital Economy Strategy 2030 supports such innovation, outlining incentives and frameworks that promote digital entrepreneurship and the development of advanced consumer services through artificial intelligence
What This Means for Travellers
For Australian travellers, the return of Ansett in a new form is both nostalgic and forward-thinking. While the airline will not take to the skies again, its reputation for customer service may live on—now reimagined through a digital lens.
The new platform promises:
Fast and dynamic itinerary creation
Predictive price adjustments based on demand
AI-curated hotel and airline packages
Zero-touch backend booking systemsA Solo Founder’s Vision, A Nation’s Legacy
A Solo Founder’s Vision, A Nation’s Legacy
A single-founder business, Ansett Travel is a reinvention of a heritage airline and a disruptive, agile business model for the new travel economy. Frantzeskos’ reliance on automation has low overhead and high speed — an agile model that others in the burgeoning world of digital startups might follow.
For now, the skies are still stripped of Ansett’s planes — but the brand is once again on the map for Australian travel. Except now it’s not by runways, but by algorithms.
How artificial intelligence (AI) is being adopted sets it apart from its technological predecessors, according to Marc Mekki, founder of consulting firm Inspire Limitless.
During an executive interview at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona, Mekki explained up the “paradox” surrounding AI. Typically, innovative technologies start in government labs, related to military research, then make their way to small and midsize companies and then to consumers. But with AI, Mekki said it’s the opposite.
“We’re seeing the adoption actually happening in the consumer sphere long before it’s happening on the corporate level—and that has profound implications, I think, for the discussion about how we innovate with AI,” he said.
Experimentation is now happening on the periphery, with consumers using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, ElevenLabs and Perplexity in different ways than they would in a corporate environment. According to Mekki, new ideas and workflows then have to make their way back to the organizational level.
Furthermore, due to the pace that AI develops, Mekki said companies are “always behind the curve.” With this in mind, businesses must be flexible and willing to take chances, which can also be intimidating.
“The moment the integration is completed and tested and rolled out, it’s already obsolete in many ways, so you need this duality between, yes, doubling-down on integration but at the same time, having part of a team or an executive team constantly being on the bleeding edge of this,” he said.
“You need to have that one foot in the future at all times.”
Mekki also touched on the need for travel to reevaluate its purpose as an industry, the future of the web and his advice on how to make a difference with AI.
Watch the full interview with Mitra Sorrells, senior vice president of content for Phocuswright and PhocusWire, below:
Agents, Algorithms and the Future of Everything with Marc Mekki
A Melbourne-based tech businessman has revived the Ansett brand as an “AI-powered” online travel agency.
Constantine Frantzeskos, who describes himself as a “marketing and digital strategist to the world’s boldest organisations”, has partnered with travel startup Travlr to launch his new “Ansett Travel” platform, which he says will use AI to offer personalised recommendations and itineraries.
The original Ansett, founded in 1936, collapsed 65 years later amid severe financial, fleet, and industrial relations issues, leaving around 16,000 people unemployed.
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Two of its regional subsidiaries, Hazelton and Kendell Airlines, merged into Rex – now itself in voluntary administration – while the Ansett brand itself also survives in Ansett Aviation Training, which offers simulator training in Melbourne.
Speaking totheSydney Morning HeraldandThe Age, Frantzeskos (pictured) said Ansett, whose trademark he acquired after it lapsed, was “a wonderful, innovative brand”.
“It was a pioneer of great service – they were the first ones to bring business class to Australia – and they were loved by their customers,” he said.
“I thought: Wouldn’t it be a cool thing to genuinely bring this brand back to life. And that’s what I’m doing – I’m building the personal travel agent of the future.
“This will be a travel agent that understands you, your family, your needs, your budget and where you’ve been. That’s the vision.”
According to Frantzeskos, he wants to create an AI “travel concierge” that can replace the need to search or plan holidays.
“One thing I’m hoping to do is, if you’ve booked a holiday for your family, we’ll know who you are and your name and where you’re going, so I want to give you an AI-written jingle and send it to you so it can be the soundtrack of your holiday,” he told theSydney Morning Herald.
“I’m a big believer that you don’t need armies of people out there doing stuff that can be done better with AI. And the cost of implementation is really declining so much – you don’t need thousands of staff and to train them any more. With AI, you can just get going straight away.
“I think there are new, cool, fun experiences we can do [that] would never be achievable by humans.”
