Some heads must be exploding along Baxter road this morning with the announcement of the government package to assist domestic aviation.
With at least three of the new Rex routes (Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney to the Gold Coast) being eligible for a government subsidy but only to Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin (as a route needs to of been flown for at least two years to qualify) Rex will be struggling to fill seats even more now.
Even funnier is that Adelaide to Kingscote which Rex have served for years is an eligible route but is also one they are exiting at the end of this month after spitting the dummy about competition. I wonder if they’ll reverse that decision now?
The screeching howls of unfairness will be echoing all weekend.
But why should Rex be given a similar opportunity to the rest?
They have arguably received more government assistance as a proportion than any other airline in Australia and even posted a 10 million dollar profit last year. They had no problem raising 150 million dollars to fund an expansion. On top of this there shouldn’t be any barrier to them increasing their intrastate flights as border restrictions haven’t affected travel within each state as much as between the states.
Are they still keeping the majority of their Saab crews on minimum flying hours?
Rex will need to be careful how they spin this because any cries of unfairness will quickly be shot down by especially their regional customers as it is they who are being ignored while the company chases the dream of shiny jets.