From what I understand of subsidised routes they only 'top up' costs to ensure there is no losses on the route. The same applied for the DANS/RANS program you were given cash on the basis of falling below the quoted level on the route, ie airline puts in a cost for the route to be operated, funds were allocated to fund that route based on cost submitted and then paid on any shortfall for any particular flight. WA routes are non subsidised they are just controlled to only allow a single operator. How Rex handled JK funds I have no idea, that's secret squirrel business, same as what QF did with the funds, QF also operating a lot of DANS, and government charters at inflated rates during the pandemic, not to mention profitable freight operations.
It also has to be said that AJ rejected the notion of subsidies directly to kill off VA, there is no other reason he would have done so. Once VA fell over QF put out the hat and dug into the trough as everyone else did. At the same time Rex took the $60m handout on offer, and why not, gov offers, take it, its good corporate governance. Not use a pandemic to sink the opposition and then secretly take three times the amount afterwards. A lot is made of the subsidies, they were asked for/offered and the government accepted, at least the rex numbers were out there in public for all to see. Its quite obvious QF has hidden those numbers because of the issues at the start where they claimed VA and QF would not need subsidies.
Who is the worse operator here, the one that has done everything in public? Or the one that got caught out by the press passing $2billion in assistance calling out the others for dipping?
One thing that will be interesting is that Labour said they would have bailed out airlines in need such as VA. So they might just be challenged by that within their term.