REX to transition to ATRs, start domestic jet ops
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This is the 3rd paragraph.
As previously reported, the aircraft themselves will come from Virgin Australia’s leased fleet and are being sourced through a former Virgin lessor which now finds itself on the long list of creditors owned almost $7 billion by the collapsed airline.Many of Virgin’s Boeing 737 pilots, flight attendants and engineers who face redundancy in the downsized airline are believed to be on Rex’s call sheet, including those previously attached to Virgin’s now-closed New Zealand base.
One door closes one door opens. It feels like they are taking over the tiger market. Four airlines doing the triangle. Interesting aviation year coming up.
This is the 3rd paragraph.
As previously reported, the aircraft themselves will come from Virgin Australia’s leased fleet and are being sourced through a former Virgin lessor which now finds itself on the long list of creditors owned almost $7 billion by the collapsed airline.Many of Virgin’s Boeing 737 pilots, flight attendants and engineers who face redundancy in the downsized airline are believed to be on Rex’s call sheet, including those previously attached to Virgin’s now-closed New Zealand base.
One door closes one door opens. It feels like they are taking over the tiger market. Four airlines doing the triangle. Interesting aviation year coming up.
So what does REX have to offer that can’t be offered cheaper, better and more affiliated than QF and VA2?
So what does REX have to offer that can’t be offered cheaper, better and more affiliated than QF and VA2?
You would have to think they would have got a very good price on the aircraft, the pilot EA will be no more than the award, the cabin crew rates won’t be much more than what they pay on the Saab, and they already have infrastructure and ground support in ML and SY.
This will be a pretty lean outfit when it gets going....as to whether or not they can tap into the market without any FF flyer program of significance, any international connections or partners, and not much of an onward domestic network, that all remains to be answered.
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There is 3000-3500 seats Tiger was filling daily ML-SY. That market share will return eventually. Plus it’s regional connectivity.
Jetstar will probably move it’s Melbourne/Sydney run to Western Sydney also which will further boost any corporate traffic on the route.
Jetstar will probably move it’s Melbourne/Sydney run to Western Sydney also which will further boost any corporate traffic on the route.
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They won’t want the union militants standing them up in 5 years time clashing over below industry pay. Which is why they will probably trade up from the Saab and further boost its cadet scheme. So I don’t expect them to fully crew it in the medium to long term with union members from Tiger or Virgin.
For a new startup everyone hired for the launch to get the regulator approvals is usually gone by the third or fourth year anyway.
It will be interesting to see if they take back past employees.
For a new startup everyone hired for the launch to get the regulator approvals is usually gone by the third or fourth year anyway.
It will be interesting to see if they take back past employees.
They won’t want the union militants standing them up in 5 years time clashing over below industry pay. Which is why they will probably trade up from the Saab and further boost its cadet scheme. So I don’t expect them to fully crew it in the medium to long term with union members from Tiger or Virgin.
For a new startup everyone hired for the launch to get the regulator approvals is usually gone by the third or fourth year anyway.
It will be interesting to see if they take back past employees.
For a new startup everyone hired for the launch to get the regulator approvals is usually gone by the third or fourth year anyway.
It will be interesting to see if they take back past employees.
For an engineer who is even somewhere near the top of the pay system the base is around 50% of that.
Maybe you forget that airlines operate 7 days a week but of course anyone who works at the weekend should not be entitled to any extra for that?...Just asking.
200k engineers!,where is that the base pay rate for an engineer?
For an engineer who is even somewhere near the top of the pay system the base is around 50% of that.
Maybe you forget that airlines operate 7 days a week but of course anyone who works at the weekend should not be entitled to any extra for that?...Just asking.
For an engineer who is even somewhere near the top of the pay system the base is around 50% of that.
Maybe you forget that airlines operate 7 days a week but of course anyone who works at the weekend should not be entitled to any extra for that?...Just asking.
200k engineers!,where is that the base pay rate for an engineer?
For an engineer who is even somewhere near the top of the pay system the base is around 50% of that.
Maybe you forget that airlines operate 7 days a week but of course anyone who works at the weekend should not be entitled to any extra for that?...Just asking.
For an engineer who is even somewhere near the top of the pay system the base is around 50% of that.
Maybe you forget that airlines operate 7 days a week but of course anyone who works at the weekend should not be entitled to any extra for that?...Just asking.
As a matter of interest, how much does a 5 cat get at QANTAS (on 737's). I can remember talking to a Virgin LAME a couple of years ago and he told me he was getting around $200k a year (all up)
Last edited by Arnold E; 30th Aug 2020 at 02:55.
Nice to see Rex at least acknowledging the considerable government largesse that they receive.
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/bus...31-p55r29.html
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/bus...31-p55r29.html
Nice to see Rex at least acknowledging the considerable government largesse that they receive.
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/bus...31-p55r29.html
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/bus...31-p55r29.html
From the balance sheet and cash flows it looks like Rex might have used $10 million of their own money to support operations but there's no sign of any increased borrowings to sustain themselves. The COVID-19 Regional Airlines Funding Assistance program was meant to be "a ‘last resort’ option when a range of other strategies to manage an airline’s position have been undertaken." (that's a quote from the published guidelines). So, how do you get $54 million in last resort funding when you haven't pursued first and second resorts?
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Deputy PM saved Rex from bankruptcy Australian Financial Review - 24 May 2020 - 11:09
So, how do you get $54 million in last resort funding when you haven't pursued first and second resorts?
This AFR article from back on the 24th of May, gave it all a run-
AFR Link: https://www.afr.com/rear-window/deputy-pm-saved-rex-from-bankruptcy-20200524-p54vxa
rgds
S28- BE
Extract:
-Rear Window
Deputy PM saved Rex from bankruptcy
Joe Aston Columnist
May 24, 2020 – 11.09pm
Last week on Squawk Box Asia, Regional Express Holdings chairman Lim Kim Hai tried justifying his recent dance moves on Virgin Australia’s grave in light of Rex’s own precarious standing up until its rescue by the federal government.
By way of refresher, Lim had lambasted Virgin’s “extremely lax and extremely non-courageous” management and its “dysfunctional” board of directors back on May 7, adding that Rex was “probably the most qualified party in Australia to be able to run an airline like Virgin”. No flies on him.
A week later, Rex’s deputy chairman, John Sharp, announced to this newspaper the planned launch of Rex flights between Australian capital cities using 10 new jet aircraft, failing to first inform its own shareholders via the Australian Securities Exchange platform. The new foray, Sharp revealed, will necessitate the issue of $200 million of new Rex shares, a mere 172 per cent of its current $116 million market capitalisation!
CNBC anchor Sri Jegarajah was rightly incredulous. “Mr Lim, with all due respect, you’re calling into question how Virgin Australia was run but Rex was facing bankruptcy in March. How would you characterise your financial health right now and what’s changed since then?”
What’s changed since then is that Rex has been given $67.6 million by Sharp's National Party comrade, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, a full $53.8 million of that in untied grants, and more than Qantas and Virgin received in Commonwealth relief funding combined. That’s a handout worth 21.3 per cent of Rex’s annual revenues, so the equivalent of giving – not loaning – Virgin $1.2 billion and Qantas $3.8 billion.
Adding insult to injury, McCormack (who is also the Transport Minister and Nationals leader) said on April 2 that “Virgin will also be able to benefit from the $298m package that we put down the other day: $198m for subsidising the 138 routes flown to and from regional centres”. Which was completely false. Virgin did not qualify for a cent of this money.
That same day, McCormack said: “We can’t just pick and select individuals and winners out of this" – words he will be force-fed for the rest of his pitiful career.
Just like Virgin, foreign-owned Rex was going broke. “Even Rex cannot survive the next six months of this global emergency,” its chief operating officer, Neville Howell, pleaded. Even Lim confirmed to CNBC that Rex is only surviving “at least the next six months … thanks to the grant from the government”.
We can’t just pick and select individuals and winners out of this.— Deputy Prime Miinster Michael McCormack
So McCormack told Virgin to find “a market-led solution” but gifted Rex all the cash it needed. Sharp, who just so happens to also be a longstanding National Party official, exalted McCormack’s “meaningful assistance package” designed to “prevent [Rex] from collapsing”. The audacity of the cronyism almost eclipses the cronyism itself.
When Prime Minister Scott Morrison reckoned on April 14, vis-à-vis the aviation sector, that “we haven’t been picking any winners or picking any favourites here”, he cannot have been properly briefed on his deputy’s staggering conduct.
Most galling of all are Rex’s grand (and expensive) growth plans just four weeks after a $67 million taxpayer freebie saved it from bankruptcy. Right now, Rex may be the only airline on earth in expansion mode. The Deputy Prime Muppet emits a resounding silence. Is this what not picking winners looks like?
Deputy PM saved Rex from bankruptcy
Joe Aston Columnist
May 24, 2020 – 11.09pm
Last week on Squawk Box Asia, Regional Express Holdings chairman Lim Kim Hai tried justifying his recent dance moves on Virgin Australia’s grave in light of Rex’s own precarious standing up until its rescue by the federal government.
By way of refresher, Lim had lambasted Virgin’s “extremely lax and extremely non-courageous” management and its “dysfunctional” board of directors back on May 7, adding that Rex was “probably the most qualified party in Australia to be able to run an airline like Virgin”. No flies on him.
A week later, Rex’s deputy chairman, John Sharp, announced to this newspaper the planned launch of Rex flights between Australian capital cities using 10 new jet aircraft, failing to first inform its own shareholders via the Australian Securities Exchange platform. The new foray, Sharp revealed, will necessitate the issue of $200 million of new Rex shares, a mere 172 per cent of its current $116 million market capitalisation!
CNBC anchor Sri Jegarajah was rightly incredulous. “Mr Lim, with all due respect, you’re calling into question how Virgin Australia was run but Rex was facing bankruptcy in March. How would you characterise your financial health right now and what’s changed since then?”
What’s changed since then is that Rex has been given $67.6 million by Sharp's National Party comrade, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, a full $53.8 million of that in untied grants, and more than Qantas and Virgin received in Commonwealth relief funding combined. That’s a handout worth 21.3 per cent of Rex’s annual revenues, so the equivalent of giving – not loaning – Virgin $1.2 billion and Qantas $3.8 billion.
Adding insult to injury, McCormack (who is also the Transport Minister and Nationals leader) said on April 2 that “Virgin will also be able to benefit from the $298m package that we put down the other day: $198m for subsidising the 138 routes flown to and from regional centres”. Which was completely false. Virgin did not qualify for a cent of this money.
That same day, McCormack said: “We can’t just pick and select individuals and winners out of this" – words he will be force-fed for the rest of his pitiful career.
Just like Virgin, foreign-owned Rex was going broke. “Even Rex cannot survive the next six months of this global emergency,” its chief operating officer, Neville Howell, pleaded. Even Lim confirmed to CNBC that Rex is only surviving “at least the next six months … thanks to the grant from the government”.
We can’t just pick and select individuals and winners out of this.— Deputy Prime Miinster Michael McCormack
So McCormack told Virgin to find “a market-led solution” but gifted Rex all the cash it needed. Sharp, who just so happens to also be a longstanding National Party official, exalted McCormack’s “meaningful assistance package” designed to “prevent [Rex] from collapsing”. The audacity of the cronyism almost eclipses the cronyism itself.
When Prime Minister Scott Morrison reckoned on April 14, vis-à-vis the aviation sector, that “we haven’t been picking any winners or picking any favourites here”, he cannot have been properly briefed on his deputy’s staggering conduct.
Most galling of all are Rex’s grand (and expensive) growth plans just four weeks after a $67 million taxpayer freebie saved it from bankruptcy. Right now, Rex may be the only airline on earth in expansion mode. The Deputy Prime Muppet emits a resounding silence. Is this what not picking winners looks like?
S28, yes, I remember reading that article. You get the impression that Joe Aston may not be a fan of the whole McCormack-Rex tie-up, probably with some justification.