How would you then solve the problem of no-shows? People would block seats months out then not turn up on the day. Who pays then and how do you value to lost revenue from someone else who would have taken the seat?

For it to be offloaded...

I can see the miners being none too pleased should they be forced off the Q400/E190 onto older tech. I believe some of the WA runways were modified at great expense to accommodate the Q400, why move them east? A weekend Perth-Bali service on the E190 perhaps.

Good luck doing Perth - Truscott with 70 bums in the Saab!!

That and they will need to pay for 2 Saabs to carry the bums of one Q400 - would be a quick way to exit the FIFO market.

You do realise the Airport does not staff the tenancies, or prevent the tenancies from being open?

Easily fixed. Pay 50% upfront for the ticket and the remainder by afterpay at the completion of the flight.

Not entirely correct, they’re contracted to be open as part of the lease.

Getting to work at an airport, far out of town, to work split shifts for minimum wage just doesn’t have the jet-setting glamour that it once did.

Hence what will be chronic staff shortages at airports, and airport food and retail.

Those Q400's and E190's are all linked to contracts in WA/SA. There will be no "swapping out" for Saabs as the clients will more than likely tear up those contracts!

REX have supposedly said they will expand FIFO ops into QLD and NT. Cobham had already committed to 11 x Q400's and 7 E190's by end of the year for existing and future contracts, prior to the REX announcement.

Any further expansion is going to require REX to source new airframes and employ new crews as the ones in WA/SA won't move, will we see RPT from the Q400/E190......maybe but QF has a strangle hold on WA so breaking that will be difficult given REX's reputation.

Safe to say the troops at NJE are not happy about the take over as well!

Its only a matter of time before REX introduce and East Coast to Perth flight and this could allow them some feed from the FIFO routes to help prop up the bottom line on those flights and also boost the appeal with mining companies

Its only 30 pax to Truscott but can a SAAB even fly that far and still hold KNX or BME as an alternate?

Why are they not happy?

Not sure about the ins and outs of NJE, but Rex certainly doesn’t have the reputation of a good employer.

What has NJS, owned by Qantas got to do with Rex buying NJE?

Not happy is not the right word sorry.

There’s a strong sense of unease about the take over and a lot of questions from NJE staff about what the future holds……e.g. Expired Pilot EBA and how the takeover will affect the negotiations for that, are Rex management going to try and re-invent the wheel with FIFO and possibly screw it all up, I mean NJE isn’t the greatest and has areas for improvement but they seem to be on a roll with gaining new long and renewing existing clients with long term contracts and would be a shame for that to all come undone.

Nonetheless, interesting next 6-12 months.

For the most part, not too bad considering but like others NJE does have its issues. Pretty busy at the moment and quite a few duty changes due crew sickness/COVID and expansion but extra $$$ for the inconvenience most of the time. A pretty good EBA compared to most FIFO operators, although it is currently expired and the folks on the line are a good bunch! The C&T culture at least on the fleet I’m on is big T and little C and quite positive.

An expired EBA continues until replaced by a new one, so no real issue there.