American Home Assurance, part of the US giant AIG, has agreed to pay all travel insurance claims related to the collapse of Ansett. Its decision to pay – it originally decided that the airline’s demise was a forseeable event – follows intervention in the issue by ASIC.

The decision comes hot on the heels of a similar backdown by QBE, which had also contended that the collapse on September 10 last year was forseeable.

Ansett was still issuing tickets between September 10 and 14, and in that period American Home sold around 4000 policies, some to Ansett customers. Like QBE, the group had refused claims for cancelled Ansett fares purchased during that period.