Rex Airlines’ recent addition of the Perth-Adelaide and Melbourne-Perth routes is expected to help lower domestic airfares, although marginally.
“Rex’s announcement that it will be commencing flights between Melbourne-Perth and Adelaide-Perth will be welcomed by travellers on those routes as it promises better connectivity to Rex’s regional services in Western Australia and will almost certainly result in lower fares on the two routes,” Keith Tonkin, managing director of Aviation Projects, told The Epoch Times.
“My expectation is that any impact on fares from the small number of incremental services operated by Rex will be marginal and limited, particularly on the Melbourne-Perth route where Qantas/Jetstar and Virgin Australia operate a total of around 15 flights daily, including some widebody A330 services from Qantas,” Ian Douglas, senior lecturer at the School of Aviation at the University of New South Wales, said.
Rex Airlines announced that it will fly between Perth and Adelaide every Monday, Friday, and Sunday, on Embraer E-190 jets operated by its group member National Jet Express (NJE).
“There were almost 85 cancelled flights by Virgin and Qantas carriers on this route in the first four months of 2024 and in the case of Virgin, its on-time arrivals and departures were terrible,” Anthony Gibara, NJE Director, said.
“Just 56 percent of its flights arrived on time during that period, while its on time departures were only slightly better at 59 percent. Travellers deserve better and they will get it with Rex. And we intend to increase the number of services once we are established on the route.”
The Perth-Adelaide route announcement came days after the airline said it will launch a Melbourne-Perth route that will operate five days a week.
“Our competitors cancelled 57 flights in total on this route in the first four months of 2024, while their combined on-time arrival and departure performance was only around 72 percent,” Warrick Lodge, Rex General Manager Network Strategy, said about the Melbourne-Perth route.
Both flights will be launched on June 28, with the Perth-Adelaide route to costs starting at $249 for a one-way economy flight. The Melbourne-Perth route will start at $299 for a one-way economy flight and $999 for a one-way business flight.
Despite Rex Airlines’ additional flights, the latest exit of Bonza from the Australian market will impact regional travel.
“With regard to Bonza. The Bonza fleet was small, and it’s focus was in a completely different market segment, both geographically and in product design. Bonza leaving the market will obviously be felt in those regional centres that were served. It will also impact Sunshine Coast airport,” Mr. Douglas said.
“In terms of the total revenue generated in Australia this year, the grounding of Bonza is unlikely to have a material impact.”
Earlier, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the suspension of Bonza’s operations will reduce the direct connections at the Maroochydore airport in Sunshine Coast from 14 to three and reduce to half the number of direct connections at the Coolangatta airport in Gold Coast.
However, the ACCC also emphasised that due to the airline’s small fleet size and exclusion of the busiest routes, it does not have more than 2 percent of market share.
