Qantas trying to force REX out of their country routes.

[bob10]

Dogfight over regional air routes as Qantas moves in on Rex (thenewdaily.com.au) (https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/travel/2020/12/18/regional-air-routes-qantas-rex/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PM%20Extra%20-%2020201218)

[101RRS]

Nothing new there - Qantas did the same with Compass in the early 90s deliberately lowering their fares to lower than Compass to wipe them out. Even though Qantas was making a huge loss they had the resources to sustain it longer than Compass who had little backup resources.

Fortunately Consumer Laws have drastically changed since then and I doubt that Qantas will be permitted to unreasonably undercut Rex.

[bob10]

Nothing new there - Qantas did the same with Compass in the early 90s deliberately lowering their fares to lower than Compass to wipe them out. Even though Qantas was making a huge loss they had the resources to sustain it longer than Compass who had little backup resources.

Fortunately Consumer Laws have drastically changed since then and I doubt that Qantas will be permitted to unreasonably undercut Rex.

We can only hope.

[Slunnie]

I agree, Hazeltons which became REX have been servicing here for a long time, where QANTAS has never bothered up until now. Although QANTAS have now moved into the local airport. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. Hopefully REX survive... but up their baggage limits into line with the other players.

[101RRS]

To be fair though, REX have decided to take on the big boys on the main east coast routes of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne so when you do that they must expect some reaction from Qantas and Virgin.

REX | Australian regional airline reveals new Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne domestic routes | escape.com.au (https://www.escape.com.au/destinations/australia/rex-reveals-new-domestic-routes/news-story/6dd8cb2799c6244de44a1c22796e102e)

[Slunnie]

To be fair though, REX have decided to take on the big boys on the main east coast routes of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne so when you do that they must expect some reaction from Qantas and Virgin.

REX | Australian regional airline reveals new Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne domestic routes | escape.com.au (https://www.escape.com.au/destinations/australia/rex-reveals-new-domestic-routes/news-story/6dd8cb2799c6244de44a1c22796e102e)

Some of the busiest air routes in the world. I hope they're not using their SAAB prop aircraft for those routes!

[101RRS]

Some of the busiest air routes in the world. I hope they're not using their SAAB prop aircraft for those routes!

No they have the ex Virgin 737s that Virgin dumped when they downsized.

[Hugh Jars]

To be fair though, REX have decided to take on the big boys on the main east coast routes of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne so when you do that they must expect some reaction from Qantas and Virgin.

REX | Australian regional airline reveals new Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne domestic routes | escape.com.au (https://www.escape.com.au/destinations/australia/rex-reveals-new-domestic-routes/news-story/6dd8cb2799c6244de44a1c22796e102e)

Exactly, 101RRS.

I reckon there was a "gentleman's agreement" to stay off each other's turf (personal opinion only). I worked at Qantaslink for 15 years and we only competed with Rex on a couple of routes. They had theirs, we had ours. It seemed to work okay.

Anyone who thinks QF and VAA aren't going to try and hold their slice of the pie on the triangle route is crazy.

Sharp and co will probably have a big sook to the government, and ask for (and receive) more handouts, just like when Covid hit. Nice to be a former politician with connections [bigsmile1] Rex received a disproportionate handout compared to QF and VAA, which arguably 'might' have helped them secure the 737's in the first place.

[Vern]

To be fair though, REX have decided to take on the big boys on the main east coast routes of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne so when you do that they must expect some reaction from Qantas and Virgin.

REX | Australian regional airline reveals new Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne domestic routes | escape.com.au (https://www.escape.com.au/destinations/australia/rex-reveals-new-domestic-routes/news-story/6dd8cb2799c6244de44a1c22796e102e)I heard today that REX will be doing Grafton to Melbourne flights, which is great for us on the mid north coast. Coffs airport has qantas/tiger/virgin only doing flights to and from sydney now, which totally sucks.

[cjc_td5]

To be fair though, REX have decided to take on the big boys on the main east coast routes of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne so when you do that they must expect some reaction from Qantas and Virgin.

REX | Australian regional airline reveals new Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne domestic routes | escape.com.au (https://www.escape.com.au/destinations/australia/rex-reveals-new-domestic-routes/news-story/6dd8cb2799c6244de44a1c22796e102e)

I even saw a few REX aircraft at Perth airport when there last. As an ex Bathurst/Orange lad growing up with Hazeltons, I thought WTF are they doing over here?

[Hugh Jars]

I didn’t think the SAAB had the legs to do Grafton to Melbourne.
Well, maybe with the 7 or 8 PAX they’ll pick up from Grafton.
My money is on a milk run all stops to Melbourne.

[JDNSW]

Rex and Qantas have shared the DUbbo route for as long as I can remember. Well, pretty much since Rex took over from Hazeltons, anyway.

[101RRS]

I think that Rex decided to try to replace Virgin on the Bris/Syd/Melb route when it looked like Virgin was going to go belly up. It must have been a bit of a shock for Rex when Virgin was able to resurrect itself, albeit in a reduced capacity.

The reality is that Qantas has the backup resources to sustain a prolonged price war if it comes to that, where the new Virgin and REx do not - the new Virgin understand this and I understand that their new pricing structure is to compete with Qantas but not undercut them where the Rex intention is to provide Qantas service at a Tiger price. This will fail as all cut price airlines trying to compete direct with Qantas have in the past - Qantas, if it wants, can always undercut cheap airlines as long as their actions to not trigger ACCC intervention.

Garry

[ramblingboy42]

With some of new generation aeroplanes coming onto domestic routes , vis Pilatus , Embraier , Bombardier , even Beechcraft , there are many more , their newer levels of efficiency will allow some operators an opportunity to operate some short haul routes profitably.

So often in the past operators have tried to operate the totally wrong aeroplane type and failed.

Its not 1920 like when Qantas was heavily directed by the mother country and had everything DeHavilland in the fleet whether it did the job properly or not.

It really wasn't until Qantas ignored Britain (who couldn't make a decent domestic service aeroplane at the time) , expertly purchased such aeroplanes as Douglas and Boeing that they could do what was required effectively on Australia's long routes.

Rex are a prime example of a fleet update requirement. If they did , more inland routes could effectively open , without disturbing Qantas, Virgin and their lower level airlines. I thought Tiger had folded.

[JDNSW]

......

Its not 1920 like when Qantas was heavily directed by the mother country and had everything DeHavilland in the fleet whether it did the job properly or not.
.....

From memory, I don't think Qantas was primarily DeHavilland at all in the 1920s. At least the aircraft they manufactured in the mid twenties were Avro. And you cannot blame Qantas for not using non British aircraft - it was government policy, and they were paying the aimail subsidy. US aircraft were not able to be used early on because the US did not sign relevant international treaties until the early thirties.