When Australia’s largest independent airline Rex launched domestic services in March 2021 there was minimal fanfare and no grand announcements of taking up the nation’s skies. Two years on and Rex is now operating eight domestic routes between six fundamental cities, adding latest aircraft and is Australia’s most reliable airline.
Photo: Rex
While there have been loads of doubters that this regional specialist could make the transition to high-capacity jet passenger services, it silenced them way back. Today Rex took one other step forward by adding an eighth Boeing 737-800 to its fleet, with one other to follow in September and plans for more on the drafting board.
The Deputy Chairman shares his thoughts
At the tip of June, Rex launched a brand new 737 nonstop service between Adelaide and Sydney, and next month is adding one other latest domestic service between Melbourne and Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania. While in Adelaide for the launch, Easy Flying caught up exclusively with Rex Deputy Chairman John Sharp to learn more in regards to the airline’s plans for its domestic network, which he described as growing according to what the market requires.
“After we first began the domestic business we said we might grow it because the market grew and we would not arrive with an enormous fleet of aircraft and expect everybody simply to rush down and fill it up. Launching latest routes like Sydney – Adelaide fills that original plan of growing as we see the market requires and in addition suits with our ability to do it, which was the ambition we set two years ago.”
Starting on the Melbourne-Sydney route within the darkest depths of COVID was a feat in itself, but slightly than simply survive, the airline now operates to the capital cities of Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra, in addition to the premier tourist destination of the Gold Coast, with Hobart to follow in just a few weeks.
Photo: Rex.
Rex operates a really well-established regional network of greater than 50 destinations using Saab 340 turboprops and needed to jump through many regulatory hoops to operate high-capacity jet services. The domestic fleet began with 737NGs previously operated by Virgin Australia, but today’s arrival was delivered latest to Silk Air in 2014 and re-registered to Singapore Airlines in February 2021 before being parked in May last 12 months.
The newest Boeing 737NG, now registered as VH-8KH with MSN 44217, underwent a heavy maintenance check and repainting in Singapore before arriving in Darwin yesterday. Sharp said that finding the aircraft was difficult enough, but then getting the required maintenance checks done, particularly for aircraft which have been parked, is even tougher.
“While there’s not a shortage of airplanes there may be a shortage of slots to do the C-checks that you want to do to bring aircraft which have been pushed up against the fence back online, in order that’s a limiting factor. We own our own paint shop but that is busy with other people’s planes so finding a slot there may be hard at times, so we actually needed to do plenty of painting elsewhere.”
Photo: Rex
Adding the brand new aircraft enables the Melbourne-Hobart route but Sharp has a transparent vision for Rex to have an entire national domestic network with increased frequencies, which may only be done with more aircraft and crews. He desires to see more frequency on existing mainline routes between Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane and an even bigger network, which hints at services to the remaining state capital Perth.
“We’re diligently attempting to add more aircraft and crews and the 2 coming in will help solve that problem, plus we hope to have one other in some months time. That can take our fleet from seven to nine and hopefully ten and beyond so we are able to offer a full network that goes right across the country to all of the state capitals and provides decent frequency to those destinations.”
Customer experience can be getting a lift
On the client experience side, Rex is developing a set of recent and upgraded lounges, a few of that are already under construction. Customer lounges are being inbuilt Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney airports, which shall be heaven for regional customers flying into those hubs and joining a connecting domestic service. Sharp also mentioned that Rex is launching a Frequent Flyer program within the near future and may even be announcing more latest routes and frequencies.
Photo: Regional Express
The Australian domestic aviation scene is rapidly changing, with latest entrants Rex and Bonza plotting their very own unique paths while Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia go about fiercely protecting their long-held market share. When asked if there was room for all these airlines Sharp, a former Australian Federal Government minister for transport and regional development, said:
“It has been more difficult of late and a few people say Australia’s only a two airline country, but I’ve all the time believed there’s room for more. There’s room for a really careful, considered domestic airline operator who doesn’t get stars of their eyes and who will grow the business in a fashion that’s digestible in a way that you may sustain.”
That appears like a plan and the indisputable fact is that when Rex arrives on a brand new domestic route the ticket prices tumble and repair levels go up. With Australians enduring months of near-record high airfares that’s definitely something to be celebrated.
Have you ever flown on a Rex 737 yet? Tell us within the comments.