Originally Posted by
43Inches
Not sure how an airline suddenly 'puts on' an extra flight at two weeks notice, when they have only a few planes and fixed rosters for staff. Maybe Sharpie will fly it himself.
Is it the same person telling you Rex is getting 777s? A few more Q400s for NJE sounds plausible, replacing the rest of the SAAB fleet with Q400s, a fairy tale of epic proportions... decent used Q400s are in the region of $10 USD-$20 USD million a piece, and leasing them will reflect that. Given a SAAB 340 is probably worth less than a million USD for a good one it's not going to be a good swap rate for something that only carries double the SAAB at much greater cost factor. It would make more economic sense for Rex to buy/lease new ATRs than go used Q400s, but even that will involve a lot of capital.
They won't be getting ATRs...
They won't be getting new birds
The Q400s will help standardise the fleet and REX will only buy 10-20 year old frames
Make no mistake ZL and VA are both in talks with QR, but QR still believe they will get extra flights and the SYD-CBR tag is still a viable option
That said VA is the preferred option although ZL is both cheaper and has more growth potential domestically and a larger potential ROI