Your're right NWF. A "road trip" of sorts was conducted by REX management last week, and I do believe it was in a Metro. The RPT ops however will be conducted by SAABs, and the REX AOC is the only one endorsed for RPT on that aircraft. I'm not sure how that sits from a commercial point of view, but I think to sell seats as REX, using REX A/C, the AOC has to be REX not Pelair. Even if the Pelair AOC is endorsed for RPT ops. (something that may not be as straightforward considering recent aquatic events!) As far as the ex Macair pilots are concerned, REX should employ every one of them without delay. For this thing to work, they will need all the experienced pilots they can get. The chalenge will be hanging on to them.
Of course they won't. I reckon they'll try to "employ" the Captains they need under the Letter of Agreement. There appears to be a significant amount of resistance to recruiting Direct Entry F/O's at the moment. Probably a hangover from the difficulty they experienced finding suitable candidates in the recent past. As a result REX are only interested in Cadets! (they know too well they won't be going anywhere in a hurry). That may, and most likely will change, but in the meantime, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how they'll make it work, especially once the major airlines start recruiting again.
As far as the LOA is concerned, it's possible REX may have shot themselves in the foot. My understanding, as it applies to the Townsville base (all these ops will be based in Townsville), the required command positions must be offered to serving REX captains first. If no REX captains put their hands up then the way may be open to "employ" DEC's on a temporay basis. Bearing in mind that these people must satify
all the REX Check and Training criteria! Then at the expiry of the LOA (in around 12 months) these pilots may be offered a position at REX on the
bottom of the seniority list as F/O's!! A real can of worms down the track.
I mean really, is it too hard just to do the sensible thing in the first place?