Rex focuses on regions

REGIONAL Express today announced a “steep increase” of its services to some of the major regional hubs on its network, as it continues to adjust operations in the face of strong competition from QantasLink.

At the same time, Rex announced its withdrawal from the Sydney to Cooma route from 27 Jun, with Rex GM of Network Strategy, Warrick Lodge, saying pulling out of the NSW alpine destination adds “to the list of small regional cities suffering from the collateral damage of Qantas’ predatory actions”.

He said Qantas had seen fit to enter the Sydney-Cooma market even though the route had only carried 2,000 passengers over the last 12 months.

Lodge announced increases in weekday services on 11 routes, including flights from Sydney to Albury, Broken Hill, Coffs Harbour, Dubbo, Orange, Griffith, Port Macquarie and Wagga Wagga.

Also being boosted are Rex’s Melbourne-Mildura and Adelaide-Port Lincoln flights, with the increased services to commence on 04 Jul - in addition to the new Melbourne-Devonport route in Aug (TD yesterday).

“Rex sees strong recovery in these regional centres and is dedicating considerable resources to meet this demand,” Lodge said.

“These improved schedules will see us operating more flights on our regional network than pre-COVID, and mark a significant turning point for the airline as we return to profitability.”

He also said the carrier was confident that the 2022/23 year would see a great improvement in the financial performance of Rex’s regional operations, which will see it only focus on “densely patronised routes where the load factors and yields will be much more favourable”.