Australian National Airways (1930)

{{Short description|Short-lived Australian airline, founded in 1929}}

{{for|the 1936 to 1957 airline|Australian National Airways}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

{{Use Australian English|date=April 2012}}

{{Infobox airline

| airline=Australian National Airways

| image=Australian National Airways Limited (A.N.A.) hanger Mascot 1929-1931 ULM.jpg

| caption=Australian National Airways Limited (A.N.A.) hangar, Kingsford Smith Airport, Mascot

| IATA=

| ICAO=

| callsign=

| founded=1929

| commenced=January 1930

| ceased=1931

| bases=

| fleet_size=See Aircraft below

| destinations=

| headquarters=

| key_people=

• Charles Kingsford Smith
• Charles Ulm

}}

File:Australian National Airways (1930) timetable.jpg

Australian National Airways, Ltd. (ANA) was a short-lived Australian airline, founded on 3 January 1929 by Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm.{{cite web | title = Southern Cloud clock | work = National Museum of Australia | url = http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/southern_cloud_clock/ | accessdate = 2008-09-13 | archive-date = 11 June 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110611173150/http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/southern_cloud_clock/ | url-status = dead }}

ANA began scheduled services on 1 January 1930.{{cite book | title = Australian Dictionary of Biography | chapter = Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (1897–1935) | publisher = National Centre of Biography, Australian National University | chapter-url = http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090602b.htm | accessdate = 13 September 2008 | archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080730191623/http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090602b.htm| archivedate= 30 July 2008| url-status= live}} It owned five Avro 618 Tens, that were British license-built versions of Kingsford Smith and Ulm's famous Fokker VII/3m Southern Cross, which also flew as an ANA aircraft although was not owned by it.

The company operated a regular passenger and airmail service between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne that was in January 1931 extended to Launceston and Hobart in Tasmania.{{cite web | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/51681100 | title=Strait Aerial Service | newspaper=Examiner | date=17 January 1931 }} Unable to obtain a formal mail subsidy, the deepening Great Depression saw revenues fall, a situation that worsened after the crash of VH-UMF Southern Cloud in the Australian Alps between Sydney and Melbourne on 21 March 1931. ANA ceased scheduled services at the end of June 1931,{{cite web | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46613415 | title=Australian Airways | newspaper=Barrier Miner | date=July 1931 }} although it continued to operate joy flights mostly around New South Wales,{{cite news | title=Southern Cross Gives Joy Rides on Country Tours | last=Smith | first=Kingsford | work=The Advertiser | location=Adelaide | date=13 October 1931 | via=trove.nla.gov.au | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/29868725|access-date=6 September 2024}} and offered pilot training services with a fleet of small aircraft.{{cite web | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/172929567 | title=Aviation in Australia | newspaper=Daily Mercury | date=15 February 1933 }}

Late in 1931 ANA attempted to open an Australia-England airmail service with a special Christmas airmail flight that was interrupted by the crash of VH-UNA Southern Sun in Malaya. After lengthy efforts to interest the Australian Government in subsidising a regular Australia-UK airmail service failed, ANA went into voluntary liquidation in April 1933, and its remaining assets were sold off.{{cite web | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230532209 | title=Wife is Her Own Boss, Says Judge | newspaper=Sun | date=24 January 1932 }}