East-West Airlines was an Australian regional airline founded in Tamworth, New South Wales in 1947. It operated to major regional city-centres and connected these centres to various state capitals, and by the 1980s it was Australia's third largest domestic airline. It also carried out its own heavy maintenance in Tamworth and operated a network of Travel Centres. History East-West Airlines was founded in 1947 with funds raised from about 800 mainly small investors with the aim to "fight the city based airline monopolies" and traded forthwith as an unlisted public company. At this early time, the workforce consisted of the manager who was Basil Brown, and the maintenance engineer and workshop manager, who was Cedric Wood. Wood was an exceptional aircraft engineer, having an unblemished maintenance record, despite having nine separate aircraft maintenance licences to his name (Wooden "A' licence, Propeller overhaul licence, Horizonal and radial engine overhaul and supercharger licences, Airframe overhaul licence and Instrument fitting licence, Magnaflux certification licence, Helicopter overhaul licence). Cedric Wood had many aircraft varieties to service. Cedric's talent enabled the company to operate maintenance procedures on a 'shoe string' budget. Initially, using single-engine de Havilland Tiger Moth aircraft, East-West established Australia's first regular mail delivery service between Tamworth, Port Maquarie and Newcastle. The company bought twin-engine Avro Anson multi-role aircraft which allowed it to carry more mail and passengers. East-West acquired several Douglas DC-3s starting in 1953 and these 28-seat aircraft steadily replaced the smaller Avro Ansons in operating scheduled services throughout New South Wales. The last example was disposed in 1973 having latterly been operated on research flights into cloud seeding systems for the CSIRO. In August 1953 East-West merged with South Coast Airways although South Coast officially became a subsidiary company and continued under its own name until going into administration in 1965. In 1965 Kwikasair made an unsuccessful take over offer for the company. In 1969, East-West was granted permission to extend its Sydney to Albury service to Melbourne. It grew in the following years from an intrastate operator to Australia's third largest domestic carrier which owned by 1982 ten Fokker aircraft. By that time East-West was also about to acquire its first jet aircraft. It was however still reeling from a venture into the Northern Territory in 1980, which incurred heavy losses. This caused also a falling out among board members. East-West, already in 1981 in an era still governed