Originally Posted by
MickG0105
The Western Australian government's Regional Airfare Zone Cap scheme covers any resident living outside the Perth/Peel region, about 550,000 people. Zone 1 ($398 capped return airfare to Perth) covers Albany, Carnarvon, Esperance, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Laverton, Leonora, Meekatharra, Monkey Mia (Denham), Mount Magnet, and Wiluna; Zone 2 ($598 capped return airfare) covers Broome, Exmouth (Learmonth), Karratha, Kununurra, Newman, Paraburdoo, and Port Hedland.
By the
WA government's accounting "... more than 42,500 capped airfares were used by regional residents between April and June 2023. This is a five per cent increase on the third quarter results and brings the total amount of fares used during the first year of the scheme to 151,181."
The
2023-24 budget papers show that $17.143 million was spent on the scheme in 2022-23 (over $4 million more than was originally budgeted), and some $22.248 million has been budgeted for the current FY.
Granted that's the entire system covering a lot of towns supported by airlines with much larger capacities. The catchment on Albany and Esperance would be quite large for locals, but Carnarvon/Monkey Mia is very small in comparison, so I doubt Rex would be making large amounts on that route from the subsidies, probably a nice route to tick over revenue for tourist seasons, but barely profitable if at all on off season. I have no idea what sort of loads they get on those, all post my time there. I know Albany and Esperance have always been decent loads for any airline that goes there, even with 50 seaters, which really does make me wonder why no others put in a bid... Maybe there's a strategic bid by players to make Rex look bad so they don't get a look in ever again, ie make their money hungry management wreck the rest of their network trying to crew Perth while neglecting the East coast sinking them further into the abyss.
Somebody once told me that airlines can either run RPT or Charter, but never be good at more than one. Rex used to be very good at RPT, but have chased so many tenders they may have forgotten what price/reliability sensitive passengers want from RPT and have shifted to be almost a charter operator. If the heart of Rex in the South East Aus collapses they will not have the revenue to do anything else, and no pilots will want to live in the areas they have tenders on the money they pay. Focus is everything and it looks like QF group have focused on Rexs heartland, and Rex have just let them take it... It will be almost impossible to get those passengers back once QF gets properly established.