The financial collapse of Ansett Airlines in September, 2001, was a shock to employees who regarded each other as family.
Lisa Dube remembers that time well, working for Ansett at check-in at the Canberra Airport.
"From memory, I was on a 5am shift and we got a call at three o'clock in the morning saying, 'Don't worry about coming into work; it's all over'," she said.
"But we still all got dressed in our uniforms and went to work. We didn't know what else to do.
"It was a terrible shock and just compounded because 9/11 had happened just a day or two beforehand, so the aviation industry was in turmoil anyway.
"We just couldn't believe it. The corporate office was locked so people couldn't even go and get their coffee mugs off their desk or anything. It was quite terrible. We were all instantly unemployed and unsure of the future"
Twenty-two years later, former employees of Ansett Canberra are getting together for a reunion, on Saturday, September 23 at Mercure Canberra in Braddon (formerly Olims), starting at 3.30pm.
People are travelling from interstate and even overseas to catch up with their former Ansett colleagues.
"We would have small [reunions] every year, and had planned a big one for the 20th anniversary of the collapse however COVID stopped that from going ahead, and then the yearly catch up kind of dropped off" Ms Dubé said.
"A few of us recently went to the funeral of one of our Ansett colleagues and we looked at each other and though, 'That's it, we need to really reconnect with each other'."
Now 52 and an executive assistant to the chief financial officer at Airservices Australia in Canberra, Ms Dube worked for Ansett for 14 years. She hopes as many ex-Ansett workers as possible will be able to attend next month's reunion.
"A few ex-Ansett staff initially stayed in travel, and a some of us are in the aviation industry still. Although we are now scattered far and wide, it is not unusual to find pockets of Ansett staff working together in various government departments and businesses. Of course it was 20-something years ago so a few of us have, or are looking forward to retirement," she said.
Ms Dube said many former Ansett workers regarded their time with the airline as golden years.
"The comments have been like, 'Oh, the best job in the world', 'That was the best time of our lives'," she said.
- Ansett Airlines Canberra reunion is on Saturday, September 23 at Mercure Canberra (formerly Olims) in Braddon at 3.30pm. To find out more and to register your attendance, go to the Ansett Canberra Reunion Facebook Page.
