During the previous pilot shortage the competition 'Poached' the pilots, which means Rex considered them livestock not any more valuable than sheep or maybe the kings deer. Now they are just property to be 'pillaged' by some raiding army. "Hey Ethelred, that damn Viking Bjorn came and 'pillaged' all of my pilots right from my living room", "Yes, bad times, Sven 'poached' several pilots from the lords forest last week, the sheriff of Nottingham is after him I hear...", "Well if you hear of any pilots cheap, I need to replace mine, ye olde shop has run out of good ones, there's only the nags down at the ye olde aeroclub left, and those ones complain too much and want some form of living wage and low work hour", "I heard the vikings were offering them better scraps and less chains for oaring their longships, thats why the shortage, apparently they even stopped using whips"

The 737 progression is one thing, but what are they doing to make a Captain like yourself think twice about leaving when there are no 737 slots? All I've seen mentioned here is an offer of $30k over 2 years to go live in BFN, but what is being done to slow those wanting to move on in Sydney/Melbourne/Adelaide, that have no interest in working out of base. It looks like they almost want those bases to just empty and close down. Considering I'm hearing that some pilots are possibly making way over $50k in callouts and such, seems like they can afford at least that much for retention.

I would not be suprised though if Rex thinks it can fix it's morale problems by getting rid of all it's current pilots and starting again, they are probably thick enough to think something like that would work, but without fixing the structural issues within the company the cycle will just continue in a downwards spiral.

When you have ex pilots warning new pilots to stay away and go work for a dodgy 210 operator instead it's telling.

I assume the Virgin VO series jets? Should be scrapped or converted to freighters. They are pretty ratty old machines.

I went back to have a look at the Non-current Lease Liability line in the FY21 annual report and that points to short leases (3-4 years) on the initial six aircraft. That is likely to cause some problems.

Oh, and the new addition is -8JS (don't know if that's been covered already).

Short leases at covid pricing may be all they could get. Either that or the geriatric jet factor. Either way, 737s are leasing for around $420,000 AUD/ month for a 2012 build -800.

interestingly, that’s about what a new A220-300 goes for.

I am not privy to details, all I hear is RQG (ex 2005 VH-VUF)is expected to leave soon, and that an attempt to source a replacement fell through from the US, maybe the potential lessor had a different view to some here re the status of the balance sheet, again not privy to details?

REX got bargain basement pricing on their initial 737s which were signed at the time when no one knew how the industry would recover from COVID. The fact that they have only been marginally profitable, at best, despite these super low prices makes you wonder how they are going to cope as prices now adjust up to market levels particularly as leasing companies will look at REX and load them up with a risk premium.

They took 3/5 leased Singapore 737s so one would assume they would take the last two within the next year after a heavy check as SQ appear to be deposing of the NG fleet post a heavy check, regardless if leased or owned. Virgin did a deal for all the SQ owned 737s so that ship has sailed.

MAX is very costly at 2023 pricing, likely out of the Rex price range, especially if not already tied to a past deal. Bonza, assuming paying the same as its sister company in Canada ($7m cad month/21 737s), appear to be paying $380k aud per month. Probably less compared to what Rex is fronting up for old machines, plus they have the added bonus of new built efficiencies.

Whilst Covid and post Max issues seemed like the best time ever to lease jets it has now turned around. The Boeing production issues, Covid slowdown, parts shortages, new engine issues and the post Covid surge in air travel is putting a huge pressure on aircraft pricing and lease costs. Not a good time to be procuring aircraft, new or old. I think we are going into a phase of hyper inflation for aviation, from aircraft and parts costs to staffing costs, good luck to any management in charge today. For everything smaller than a 737 the pressure is even greater with very little replacement options and high demand for a trickle of new builds.

As for the SAABs, Rex management dropped the ball probably 5-10 years ago. There will be no affordable turboprop come to market that will replace the SAAB. With such a large fleet Rex should have begun a fleet wide upgrade program in partnership with SAAB to zero time and modernize the fleet, the Maritime Patrol aircraft already had the zero time options all Rex had to do was to negotiate an airline version of this. There's even the possibility to install fuselage plugs and add more capacity and new engine and prop options that could be explored. I personally think it's too late now, just like any offers to retain significant staff morale should have been done years ago. Go cheap, get cheap outcomes....

So the last 2 737s are registered 8KH (Kim Hai) and 8JS (John Sharp)
how humble - naming aircraft after yourself. Give me a break :rolleyes:

Skilled labour
 

Anyone think this whole poaching/pillaging pilots narrative will lead to Rex being able to import cheap pilot labour from overseas?

We need a better union who can rebut these stupid Rex claims and any suggestion of importing pilots should be challenged with the statistics on how many Australian pilots are leaving for the USA to fly jets because Australian airlines don't want them.

It's already been done, fact is there are very few overseas pilots willing to make the move to Australia on the conditions offered. Hence why all the other threads about Australia being behind the world in flight crew pay and conditions recently. Reality is that Australians are the cheap pilots moving overseas for the vacant jobs on offer. creating more shortages here. There is only one real answer and that is a big increase in pay and conditions to retain whats left.

Come to Australia, to fly a forty year old turboprop and live the dream!

The long awaited Loyalty Program - https://rex.com.au/rexflyer/LoyaltyHomePage.aspx

No program partners named (leaves you wondering why it took so long to set up), between 3 and 7 points earned per dollar spent; it doesn't exactly scream "game-changer".

Agreed, this should have kicked off with their 1st jet service so that those that gave REX a try when fares were rock bottom had a reason to re book

A couple of points
For those that already fly REX frequently this will be a win but cost REX around 10% as those flights would have been booked anyway
Fares would have to raise slightly across the board to cover the above
REX would be hoping that, like all the other airlines, there is a burn rate on points

Unfortunately this looks way too in house
You can't earn points buying groceries or petrol nor can you book on partner airlines for international

Whilst this may be appealing for those already regularly flying with REX and may attract a small number of QF regional passengers I think that this may be a swing and a miss

What could have worked
To earn points on fuel or groceries from secondary chains

It does look to be a good scheme though. And I reckon they're probably working on a shop of some sort. Not having international partners is the test for them.

Isn’t there an issue with opening up all unsold seats within 48 hours of departure to be booked at the lowest frequent flyer fare? Within 48 hours of departure time should be your higher yielding fares shouldn’t they?

Well considering the banks, main supermarkets, car hire, travel, retailers, fuel providers are all tied up with the other two, I struggle to see how they expect to hit the ridiculous ten figure valuation aspiration they had on this according to ‘Mother’.

In all seriousness, with all of the above contracted out to the competition, how on earth does this make money? Or is it just to please loyal customers? The company is burning cash isn’t it?

Don’t even try to tell me one can build a successful loyalty program by selling points to IGA, the local family owned servo, or pay day lenders.

Coles and 'Flybuys' are only linked to Velocity, not sole contracted, and many other businesses that had links to Ansett are still not contracted back into the loyalty program schemes. There's a big market of possibilities. Just depends what you have to trade to tap in.

PS most of the car rental, hotel chains and other travel extras tend to just affiliate now with airlines rather than sole contract. Rex just has to prove they can provide X customers and they will make a discounted deal for their passengers.

Yep, it has taken Rex 18 months to two years to conjure up a loyalty program that has no revenue stream, just a balance sheet liability and an expense line. Looks like they might have had the work experience kiddie bung it together.