Originally Posted by
aviation_enthus
First off can I just say everyone loves to pile on Rex when the opportunity presents itself! Pprune, newspapers, Facebook etc I am yet to come across many (if any) comments supporting Rex. Each to their own, but tell me a company in Australia that doesn’t have similar issues from time to time!
I’ll be the first to admit I never initially applied to Rex because of their reputation for playing hard ball during eba’s and plenty of rumours of crew being thrown under a bus for minor issues. So I wasn’t happy when I ended up working there when my previous employer went bankrupt.
BUT!
I’ll admit I never encountered any pressure from management, if I didn’t like it I told them where to go (as a captain). Any incidents I reported were treated well and as you’d expect from a mature safety system. The CP and HOFO were good guys and I found them to be very reasonable to deal with. Management above this was the problem. CEO and of course the well known views of certain owners are an issue. However you have to admit they know how to run an airline and make money. We might not all agree on their methods but they have been profitable, the staff are paid a reasonable wage, the aircraft are well looked after and they are successful.
The recent media reports and the he said she said rubbish between CASA, Rex and the union is all a bit messy. I find it very hard to believe the ‘ground the entire Rex fleet’ claim WASN’T made to grab a headline. If that was written in the union document to CASA as well, it can only be to grab attention. But when taken to the media, they combine it with the propeller falling off and the age of the Saab’s and you have an instant really bad story about the company. Of course management released an aggressive media release in response! This could have a significant effect on the company and as of yet, none of the allegations are proven!!! Once a statement like ‘ground the company’ is out in the open, it’s very hard to get it back if eventually unproven.
Now I’m not saying Rex is perfect and free of blame, I’m not saying the union is right either. But how about we all just sit back and have a bit of sympathy for the guys and girls that work there while the investigation takes place. They are the ones all this is going to affect in the medium term.
Thats for sure, lets hold the horses, peoples jobs are involved, families income, business that rely on the airline, if there are defects, issues another casa audit should deal with it, yes word is they were there again this week is that number 6. Calling for grounding the fleet is crazy, if the issues are proven we would all hope the system deals with it. Who knows where the paper got it, my bet is the ALAEA, even though they deny it, of course they would. Really sounds like casa has more problems than rex, 5 audits, now six, letter to rex telling them they are good, come on has to be more to it.