The thing that confuses me is why people seem to think that the only hot place Rex operates is in Qld
I'm sure that Rex operate in hot places other than Qld. However the question is.. do they suffer the major tech and performance dramas currently occurring on the Western Qld routes? The very poor service provided to date (in comparison to Skytrans and Macair and Flight West)) have many describing Rex as "running a total root on that route."
The punters out this way are calling the aircraft "Scania's" (not Saab's) because they continually break down, run hot and can't carry a load. A couple of weeks ago, after going tech at Boulia, the Bedourie pax had to drive themselves 180km on mainly dirt road (in their own vehicles) to Birdsville, and the Quilpie pax drive themselves to Charleville to get on the flight that was delayed by 8 hours. Another time, Pax at Toowoomba Wellcamp were left wondering (after paying their $60 taxi fare from town), when the aircraft was going to turn up, as there is very weak mobile phone service, and no-one seemed to know what was happening. They eventually left 7 hours later. The standing joke with Rex arrival times is that the delay will be about the same as it takes you to drive there. Many are carpooling to YBCV and getting on the Qantaslink Dash to YBBN, and then the Airport bus back to YTWB. The mail and freight left behind and small baggage limits are other complaints. Aircraft (being machines) will go tech from time to time, and people generally understand this..but the constant problems with the Saabs have the pax nervous with the aircraft itself, after previously happily flying around in B200's, Metro's and F27's.
So.. can West Wing operating under the old Skytrans AOC still fly (unsubsidised) on the previous Skytrans routes? If they can, I reckon they would get pretty good loads on YBBN YTWB YROM,YBCV route.