Originally Posted by
KRviator
So... For those Council's who are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars, that just gets written off now? What's the bet next time Air T-Rex owes more than $10,000 in landing fees, one of those one-bitten, twice-shy Council's parks a slasher and ute either end of a SAAB until their invoice is paid before it gets to the aforementioned debt level?
The government has sneakily added a fund that will allow up to $5 million of debt from each airport owed money to be cleared. I say sneakily as I'm sure they are doing this to make the bail out look much smaller. The earlier $80 million, $30 million ? and now $60 million, means they have already given Rex $140 to $170 million, plus whatever has been fed through already existing subsidies. That $5 million dollars per affected airport/facility that is owed by Rex could be over $100 million almost doubling the bailout figure, but now hidden behind direct payments to each entity.
I just wonder if this opens the federal government up to a class action by all Rexs competitors to get similar subsidy for their operations to regional ports, I mean I would be chasing that if my competitor got random payments to aid their bottom line. It's no small sum for the other regional airlines.