Compass Airlines operated in Australia for two brief periods in the early 1990s. The two incarnations of the airline were quite separate with different management and aircraft.
History
Compass I was Australia's first low cost airline. It was established following deregulation of the Australian airline industry in 1990. Previously Ansett and the government-owned Australian Airlines had operated under the Two Airlines Policy, which was in fact a legal barrier to new entrants to the Australian aviation market. It restricted intercapital services to the two major domestic carriers. This anti-competitive arrangement ensured that they carried approximately the same number of passengers, charged the same fares and had similar fleet sizes and equipment.
Compass Mark I
Compass Airlines, later referred to as Compass Mark I was established by Bryan Grey, who had previously run regional airline East-West Airlines.
East-West had earlier attempted to break the duopoly of Ansett and Australian Airlines by offering cheap fares but in the regulated environment of the time was not allowed to operate directly between major cities so was forced to detour via regional centres. East-West was ultimately acquired by Ansett.
Compass commenced operating between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and