Rex blasts QF pullouts

REGIONAL Express is loudly proclaiming “I told you so” to anyone who will listen, after Qantas last week announced its intention to cease flying on the Melbourne-Wagga Wagga and Melbourne-Mt Gambier routes.

A Rex spokesperson said the moves “clearly demonstrate Qantas’ true intentions when it entered into these and other uneconomical regional routes to compete with Rex”.

The regional operator said in the face of increased competition it had to decide whether it would retreat from services which were no longer commercially viable due to Qantas’ actions.

“The Rex Board decided to meet Qantas’ predatory actions with resolute determination... instead of retreating, Rex increased services significantly on regional routes with larger passenger numbers in competition with Qantas,” the spokesperson said.

“Seeing that its predatory behaviour was not having the desired effect, Qantas now realises that its massive losses, compounded by startling operational incompetence, make it no longer sustainable to continue bleeding cash on these marginal regional routes.”

Rex is predicting QF will also pull out from other routes, claiming it had entered them purely with the intention of destabilising Rex in its traditional markets as a punishment for its entrance onto mainline capital city routes with its new Boeing 737 jet operation.

The regional airline is calling on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to step up efforts to ensure a level aviation playing field (TD 17 Sep 2020).

The move is the latest salvo in the long-running war of words being waged by Rex, which has now been calling out QF for over a decade (TD 14 Dec 2009).