Regional Express airline to cease flights in Western Australia

Australia’s largest independent regional airline Regional Express (Rex) has announced today it will shut down its air services in all States, except Queensland, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement will affect vital air services to the Gascoyne and South West of WA. The airlines deputy chairman, John Sharp, said the airline was expecting an 80 per cent reduction in passenger numbers during the pandemic. He said this was the tipping point in the airline business where it would no longer be sustainable to operate reduced services unless the Federal and State governments were willing to underwrite the losses. The airline currently operates flights from Perth to Albany, Esperance, Carnarvon and Monkey Mia but will cease operations from April 6. Last week, Transport Minister Rita Saffioti had discussions with the management of REX. She said the State Government intends to work with REX over coming days to see what services can be secured and maintained for WA. Last week the airline announced a cut of 45 per cent to the network in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. This follows an open letter to the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack on March 16 warning the airline likely would not survive the next six months of the pandemic. Days later, the Deputy Prime Minister brought forward a $715 million relief package for Australian airlines. The Airlines deputy chairman, John Sharp, said the rescue package would provide a direct benefit to the airline of one million dollars a month. “(This) is grossly insufficient to cover the $10 million a month we expect to lose running the heavily reduced schedule we announced last week,” he said.