Bill Hamilton gives REX 6 months
 

As reported on ABC AM Radio today Bill Hamilton of AOPA fame says he gives REX 6 months citing operational costs etc as part of the reasons for their downfall.
Now, if I was a member of the flying general public I would, upon hearing that, say to myself that I wouldn't book ahead for any of my trips just in case the airline fold and I lose my money.
What a negative and jealous little industry we have. REX will provide jobs and a service to some country towns who really need to have an airlink or they will die.
Whatever we think of those involved or of their chances of survival how about some positive thinking and give them and others who try a fair go.

I don't always agree with Mr Hamilton, but in this case I'll make an exception.

There has been way way too much politics and carpetbagging and too little expert reality in this whole scenario for there to be any confidence that it'll get up and stay up.

I will fight to the death for the regions and the necessity of regional air services they are as much part of the social fabric of out nation as is the road system.

They should not be the playthings of the pollies and carpetbaggers.

He also said he would be happy to proven wrong.

Doesn't sound like dooom and gloom, more a realistic view.



Dog

He cited his usual reasons for Rex's demise, fuel tax, airport charges and maintenance costs. Sounded more like a slug at CASA, Airservices and the Gov then Rex. Its the nature of jounalists to find a credible source to make a negative statement when things are looking up. Personally I think Rex will get up, in fact I'm betting the farm on it!:)

Turbulence ahead for new airline


A leading aviation industry expert has given new regional airline Australiawide six months before it collapses.

Aircraft Owners and Pilots' Association technical director Bill Hamilton does not believe the airline, to fly as Regional Express, or REX, will survive.

"Airport charges, fuel charges, the cost of maintaining aircraft, the cost of paying for all the services you have to have for an aircraft, the minimum costs that have to be covered, are really quite high," Mr Hamilton told ABC radio.

"At the end of the day, this is what will beat them."

He gave the airline six months before it folded.


"I would be very surprised to see it go much longer than that and I'll be very, very happy to be proven wrong," he said.

Australiawide took ownership of former Ansett subsidiaries Kendell and Hazelton airlines last week, overcoming a range of hurdles to merge the two regional carriers.

Former Hazelton owner Max Hazelton said there was little doubt the airline faced a bumpy ride because of expanding operating costs.

"They can only make money on discount fares providing they get the high load factor.

"They've got to get their costs down to where that can be achieved."

Mr Hazelton said the key factor for the new airline was to get schedules right.

"(Passengers) like to leave the country in the early morning and arrive in Sydney at around 8.30am where they can be in the city by 9am, and they want to leave the city at five or six o'clock at night," he said.

"Australiawide have got a fleet of 29 aeroplanes, so they might be able to give some pretty good services."

Former Kendall company secretary Kerry Carmichael said there was no passenger loyalty anymore and people looked only at price.

"If the price is cheap, they will go with that particular airline," he said.



©AAP 2002 Ninemsm for you to read........complete......

Mr Hazelton;
put his finger right on it.

So there is intense activity in the early morning and late arvo and nothing in the middle of the day.
What do you do with the fleet during the rest of the day?

Been here done that and there is NO simple answer, and ALL the marketing hype, smoke and mirrors in the world wont increase the population of downtown Dubbo by one person and you wont be able to get the entire population of downtown Dubbo to fly to Sydney or wherever once a year let alone once a week.

That has and will always be the real problem in the regionals
Mr Hazelton knows that better than most.

Cheap fares will only dilute your revenue base at the very times you have the passengers attention, i.e in the morning and evening.

Promotional cheap fares and services to "fill in the day" and get the utilisation up are speaking to towns already emptied out of "fares" by the morning services. Or worse, and this is usually the case, you wind up with the SAME amount of traffic spread over 2 flights with LESS TOTAL revenue.:eek:

Inland Marketing know the market and its idiosyncracies well AND have the real interests of the regions, because they are them, at heart.

Blind Freddy where are you old chap?

Mr Hamilton knows what he is talking about, and he doesn’t say things lightly without the information to back it up. :D :D :D :D

Feel free to contact Bill Hamilton via AOPA on 02 9791 9099 and see for yourself. If he is not there, leave your name and number and he will get back to you. :) :) :)

Price=Cost + Profit
 

Surely when selling a product or service one calculates the cost to provide it and then adds a profit margin to derive the cost to the consumer.

If this process is followed I fail to see how high costs will sink an airline. The real issue as Gaunty points out is bums on seats. They have planned a 90 minute shuttle schedule SY-CB for $216 one way. Not cheap!

http://community.airattack.co.uk/ima...lies/FRlol.gif http://www.1c.zp.ua/vboard/images/icons/lol.gif http://community.airattack.co.uk/images/smilies/lol.gif

Mr Thomas is doing something similar in the west. I wish these people would support rather than grandstand, because the end result is a greater length of dole queue.

... exactly!

why can't these clowns (and thats all they are) get on the radio and say something postive?????

Why do they have to say these things on the day of launch?

Is this Hamilton clown running again for president?

trying to attract abit of attention???


A new airline, with some new ideas, be they good or bad, having a go.

Competition for Qantas, a choice for the travelling public in regional Australia.

Come on guy's lets give em a go

Bill Hamilton go back to your little box!!!!!!!!!

Sic 'em Rex!!:cool: :cool: :cool:

Competition for QF
 

Yes I think you have it there - who does (or has he retired?) WJR Hamilton work for?

To be fair, the media will always take a negative spin off a comment like this and run with it regardless of whatever else Bill might have said.

Just look at the recent Airshow prangs in Europe - NBN TV in the Hunter added the beauty "... leading people to question weather people should be exposed to such danger at Airshows in Australia".

Pure tosh yet trotted out by the reporter with a perfectly straight face, regardless of the fact NBN is one of the biggest sponsors of Airshows in this region.

Hopefully WJRH will bear the brouhaha in mind next time the media ring up for comment! :D
;)

I agree with Cruncher
He is actually running his own agenda to bash
1) CASA
2) Airservices
3) Maintenance Requirements
He doesn't give a f@t r@ts @rse about Rex does the former Capt.

Outback Pilot
He will say absolutely ANYTHING to push his own agenda. And I have witnesses

I hope to hell REX stick it up his ****... Michael Jones and all!

The word is that Bill was NOT speaking on behalf of AOPA but it seems as the above scribe mentioned was again blinded by his desire to be in the media limelight!

It is about time that the Board of AOPA established a policy for media comment and enforced it.

And really, it is not AOPAs place to comment on such matters - they have far more important matters to consider.

REFER "REX AND SINGAPORE":D

Basically, the media will always ring WJRH on any subject because, right or wrong, he simply can't keep his trap shut.

DS tends to do the same thing.

G'day :rolleyes:

There is a story about a young stud bull, who was notorious for jumping over fences. As years went on, he had jumped thousands of fences, until one day he didn't quite make it. He tore his balls off on the barb wire. He was no longer a stud bull. He thought what he could do next in his reduced capacity, and he became a CONSULTANT. Ring true???

More room on the bandwagon
 

Let this be a lesson for all of you, if you have any desire to help the GA industry in this country and spend countless hours of your own personal time going through the CASA papers and other sh!t, dont ever expect any pilot to cut you a break for being misquoted.

You will never receive anything but "you should have done it this way" and all your motives will be questioned because you have made a successful career out of aviation.

Bill apparently was *not* speaking on behalf of AOPA.
AOPA continually cops a bagging because they are the *only* ones to bag.

Come on boys and girls, get on the bandwagon and tear down this man for opening his mouth because someone asked him a question!

my turn, I think his plane is the wrong colour... absolutely disgusting... Its green, surely this must be an attack on Virgin Blue because he worked for Qantas.....

<deep breath>

Anyway.... lovely day outside...

Dog

:p :p :p :p :p

What is Bill Hamiltons history?

Perhaps Private Lic?

I thought we were all in the industry because we all like Airplanes??????????????????

Seems a shame , Why is it any of his concerns anyway???
Answer me William!!!!!!

Right on Dogimed :D :D :D :D I could not put it better myself. :cool: :cool: :cool:

Dogimed - not misquoted. His own words, out of his own mouth, using his own voice on the radio and yes, I agree that Bill Hamilton has done a great deal to further the cause of GA especially where CASA is concerned but all I was saying was give a new airline a go. If someone seemingly in authority bags it from day one then the people who pay good money to fly are not going to support it and without the paying public there is no airline. Be positive. Help the people with the guts to try something a chance.

What about if I said "I think George is a jerk for giving away his favorite car to Janine"

And you heard "I think George is a jerk"

Yes, it was out of my mouth, and misquoted? yes..

Just an example....


Dog

JULIET WHISKEY, Mr Hamilton would probably have more hours than all those who have responded to this topic added together.
Including many hours in command of heavy jet aircraft. People may not agree with his views but he has a wealth of experience.

Chanel 7 new had an article on REX starting up the other night. Good PR untill they followed it with a report on the Saab with a frozen stall warning almost crashing on landing.

Not suprising, but sad, to see reporters going true to form and looking for cheap drama.

Lets hope this doesn't help Mr Hamiltons prediction come true.

:rolleyes:

Juliet Whisky, Bill Hamilton 23,000 hours accident free UK CPL/IR endorsed to B707/720
Australian ATPL endorsed to Command B747 all models command B767 all models and a wide range of smaller aircraft
N.Z. ATPL endorsed to B767 and B747-400 and smaller aircraft
US FAA CPL Multi/Land?Instrument endorsed to B707/720

Yes Bill is a private pilot as well.

LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE
 

courier Why do Australians fear competition??

People are always quick to be cynical of things before its development.

Who is to judge, and what insight do they have of whats to become of tomorrow???
...... GEE if i had such insight, i would be predicting myself crossing paths with some European babe, 6pack accompanied with all the extras, in the not too distant future...:D

I think good luck to them, and instead of supporting the growth of an industry, we remain pessimistic.....

Bill Hamilton would like to see rex fail but I think hundreds of rex employees wont forget what he has done to them.
I heard a rumour today that the major share holder in rex is SQ, can anyone confirm this?

Bill Hamilton probably did not mean to do what he did. But AOPA has no business commenting on the financial viability of startups.

Yes Bill has 50 squillion hours, it shows. Perhaps it is time he moved to a sunny place near Hervey Bay!!!

"T"
Part of the ATPL syllabus / examination,

QUESTION 1
-Greater than 20,000hrs you may excercise your privellidge to be Arrogant-?


A YES
B NO
C ONLY UNDER THE INFLUENCE
D ONLY LESS THAN 20,000HRS

CORRECT ANSWER

A

Doh !

Spell check failure........:p

- d

Hmmm it is great see all the experts giving their positive advice and constructive input here, on what Bill H did or didn’t say. We will have to look you successful people up when we need some positive influence. It is nice to see such great support for one another….. :D :D :D :D

Juliet Whiskey, What can I say without appearing to be arrogant to a twit who can't even spell.

JW can spell ok, it's just the medication :)

and he better start sharing it around soon ;)

Ulm, I think you missed the point. AOPA was not involved at all.

Hmmmm
Outback Pilot

Over time, this forum has a pretty good record at sussing out carpetbaggers, their attendants and revealing the strolling Naked Emperors that are over represented in this industry.
The susser outers have come from all manner of backgrounds. :D

T

So, Mr Hamilton has the qualifications and hours that one would expect of a person of his age and employment record.
They do not on their own confer any "special insights" on areas beyond that gained in the manner of that employment. Line or even management pilots are not necesarily trained nor have any contact or input with the actual running and financial management of the airline as an entity beyond the unit for which they are responsible. Their part of ship is to operate the equipment according to and in the manner required by the company. The skills and mind sets required to do this effectively, with perhaps the exception of discipline and professional qualifications relevant to each, are almost the opposite to that required in the commercial environment.
One requires operation within a very rigid framework defined by the Laws of Physics the other by the the ultra flexible, malleable and mysterious Laws of Human Behaviour. One runs on rails the other is a train smash.

It is unfortunate that the (and I hate this word) lay people out there attribute omniscience in ALL aviation matters to pilots.
"My friends mate Capt X works for XYZ and he says that ABC is whatever" becomes "ABC IS whatever".
Or after reading about the collapse of or accident involving ABC you'll hear "lets ask Joe he's a (Private) pilot he'll know:rolleyes:" and that becomes the END of it
Pilots are entitled to opinions but outside the bounds of their professional experience that is ALL that they are.

Whilst I hold an opinion similar to and agree with him in this matter, it is only my personal opinion and will only be given as much weight as the recipient applies to it in the light of their perception of my qualifications or lack of.

No one here doubts that Mr Hamilton is hard working and sincerely committed to his cause.

However, to the public, when you link
"B747 Capt", Wow!........................ so what, he certainly should be by now if he has been flying for his company for that long
with.
AOPA, yup heard about them in the media..................oh they are the mob who look after Aircaft Operators and Pilots. (BTW QF are an operator are they a member???)
with
leading aviation industry expert, OK.....................what can I say, so am I in my area of "Oz aviation trivia" :cool: ?
with
"technical director" Heck! he can probably tune a VCR....................... those two words linked just on their own invoke omniscience, but in what area?
They think they've got a full blown expert in whatever he is talking about on their hands.

Real professionals, whilst in the presence or earshot of the lay person, are very very careful in their utterences of personal opinion of matters outside of their direct knowledge and experience, lest they be misconstrued and attributed to them and damage their credibility in matters about which they have.

It's called credibility.

Spot on Gaunty.

Couldnt have put it better myself Gaunty. Unless someone had misquoted me on what i origionally said ;)

Twin

The following is posted on behalf of Mr Andrew Kerans