From the Australian. Has anyone actually seen this advertisement in the newspaper? If true it's a new low in this war!
Australian domestic airlines are in a huge feuding battle. Rex is fighting for survival and advertising heavily to attract business, but is struggling to sell profitable seats. Dirty advertising tactics have stepped the war to a new level with Qantas angry over Government handouts to Rex resulting in Rex posting a profit.
News article follows "The bitter feud between Qantas and Rex has stepped up a notch after Rex took out full page advertisements highlighting public discontent with the Flying Kangaroo over refunds.
The ad uses dozens of social media posts made about Qantas to emphasise problems with the refund process during the Covid crisis which has resulted in thousands of flight cancellations.
Rex deputy chairman John Sharp said in contrast, they had refunded every passenger who had requested their money back for an eligible fare bought before April 1,2021.
The ad suggested Qantas could owe as much $1bn to passengers caught up in Covid-related flight cancellations.
Throughout the pandemic, Qantas has strived to manage a huge number of travellers disrupted by border closures and lockdowns, by offering refunds, rebookings or travel credits.
On its website, Qantas points out that refunds could take up to eight weeks to process, and may be conditional on the sort of fare purchased.
The advertisements are expected to stir up more animosity between the carriers, which have clashed over regional routes and government grants.
Rex has previously accused Qantas of deliberately adding capacity to regional routes in an effort to squeeze out the smaller carrier as “payback” for Rex’s decision to compete on capital city routes.
Since the start of the pandemic Qantas has added more than 40 new routes, including several that were operated solely by Rex.
In response Rex threatened to pull off a number of routes, many of which were not the subject of competition from Qantas.
To date Rex has not come good on its threats.
Government grants given to Qantas and Rex throughout the pandemic have also been fodder for the fight.
Qantas claimed the considerable financial assistance given to Rex was disproportionate to the airline’s size.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said if Qantas had received the same level of assistance as Rex, they would have got over $7 billion.
Mr Joyce’s suggestion that there was only room for two airline groups on major domestic routes in Australia also inflamed Rex management.
The fight then took a bizarre turn when Mr Sharp accused Qantas and Virgin Australia of colluding to try to sink Rex.
In their recent half year results, Qantas posted a $1.09 billion statutory loss, compared to Rex’s $9.9 million profit for the six months to December 2020.
As well as Sydney-Melbourne, Rex has added Melbourne-Gold Coast and Sydney-Canberra to its network using former Virgin Australia 737s.
Qantas has been contacted for comment on the advertisements.