Rex buying 25 new A/C ????
 

Ch9 Nightline report Tonight saying Rex buying 25 newbies!!
How where when why??? Anyone know the story???

Rex to Acquire 25 Latest Generation Saab 340B plus Aircraft
Full Article and Details: http://www.rex.com.au/corp_info/ShowNews.aspx?nid=97

After this addition, will REX's fleet come close or even surpass DJ's?

Well done REX - Good news for all Staff and Customers - Be nice to see you in QLD now!

I thought the Saab 340 went out of production many years ago, so they're hardly going to be "new" aircraft.

Ummmmm even if Rex had 60 or 70 SF340B's I'd hardly call that a surpassing of DJ's fleet.

Whilst some will no doubt be additional frames, one would suspect many will simply be replacing the existing Saab 340As and some of the existing Bs.

Anyone know the net fleet increase after this deal?

Maintenance
 

Sounds like avoiding maintenance- Just like GA.

They are out of production. These "plus" aircraft as I understand it are just updated 340Bs with low airframe time. I'd suggest that most if not all will be coming from the states, where there is a surplus of unused turboprops that SAAB could buy back to lease.

So Aussie domestic carriers are buying old Saab's just as Air nelson are ditching them across the tasman and buying new Q300's?

PS, Can't moan, I own two Saab's, one normally aspirated the other a 200bhp turbo....

You thought correct, they are out of production.

PS: I bought a new house the other day. Actually it was new for me, but it was actually built in 1980, so it is actually old. I now tell people I have bought an old house. They enquire about the age and I tell them it was built in 1980. They then respond that that isn't old at all. I then respond that it is a new house I bought. They look confused and ask if I bought two houses, one new and one old. I try to explain that I just bought one old new house. They just don't get it!

ha ha! :D ......

AntiSkid owns 2 SAABS. The Swedish Fiat :8 You must have plenty of dough to keep 'em on the road, mate:ok: :}

Its better than what Eastern is doing.They are now keeping two of their old 100 series which were to be phased out two months ago.:( Go for it REX good to see you guys expanding.:ok:

Could this be the forunner to a merger, acquisition of ******. 25 airframes seems to be an awful lot of airframes, considering only a handful of their fleet are A models.

A marcair/Rex joint venture would be a formidable competitor. 80 aircraft fleet would bring enormous ecconomies of scale and would surely scare the pants of Eastern, even Qantas/Virgin.

From there, it would only be a simple matter(reklativey speaking) to upgrade to a High Capacity AOC and lease a dozen or so 737's to link up the capital city hubs, ie., Adeaide, Melbourne,Sydney, Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns.

This scenario is emminently feasuble as the fixed costs are already paid for and it would nly be the marginal cost of the aircraft, crew and fuel etc.

Before anyone attacks me, the market is still growing at around 5% year on year, additionally there is a huge on-carriage from Rex to other airlines and vica versa. Trunk routes would simply keep their existing pax on their own trunk flight raher than interlining to Virgin/Qantas.eg pax going Orange to Brisbane curently flies rex to Sydney then transfers to Virgin/Qantas.

Going to be very interesting times ahead.

How about ol' Skywest!
East meets West might be the ultimate game plan for our Singapore friends.
Facilities and slots already there, then get a few narrow bodies like maybe the A320 ;) and Wham Bam you have a national airline with regional feed!:D
Oh, and International feed from guess who?

HaHa... well said Iceblock!


You last two aren't related to the Townsville refueler are you??? :}

You'd have to suppose that something is in the winds... 25 "new" aircraft is quite a sizeable increase... perhaps Rex will go into QLD alone? Or on the other hand perhaps they are going to return 25 A & B model aircraft to lessors, in order to take advantage of more competitive lease rates available on these surplus models???

At any rate it's good to see an underdog performing so admirably. :ok:

Ahh yes the old rex-ma*air marriage rumour rears its ugly head once again. Last I heard it was flatly denied by both parties, but then again why would they tell the public until it IS public. 25 more 340s are probably 20 too many for m*cair's route structure, even with the metro replacement. Where would the rest of the aircraft go?

Why not ATR?
 

Any idea why no ATR`s in Australia?The ATR72-500 carries 72 pax burning 1.0 Ton of fuel on a 01:20 mins leg flight time in ISA+15 conditions. It has had a huge success worldwide.
Air New Zealand is a major customer and lately Air Pacific which bought two second-hand ATR42-500 series from Air Mauritius.
With soaring fuel prices,it will nice to compare that with the ducky Dash-8 Q400 series???
We know ATR is french,but at the end of the day its those extra dollars you scrape to save that make the shareholders happy!!!:D

ATR42 tried and failed over 20 years ago. Air Queensland. No APU was one factor.

dodflies,
Q400 is far supeiror in conditions prominent in most regional airfields Australia wide. ATR72 has proven successful in Europe but the operating conditions are a stark contrast. The 42 has been pushed with a few northern operators, but it isn't as flexible (not to mention maintenance costs) as some other rivals. Theres also been a surplus of bras' and saabs in the states with the industry down-turn in the past few years which dramatically reduced aquisition costs. But I wouldn't rule them out, theres now a 328 operator in Oz, so why not eh? :ok:

I can think of many things to call a Saab 340... advanced ain't one of them though.... :oh:

Yes it does have an APU, its called the Number 2 engine... ;)