Rex to fly between Australian capital cities

[Carrots]

Sitting here in Melbourne waiting for my flight back to Syd.

Tuesday's flight down just like any other except for the number of pax. 10 pax total is not a great look on a 737 especially on a 5.30pm flight.

Becareful, Rex might accuse you of being a Qantas spy with posts like that

 

[jakeseven7]

Honestly get off the QF stronghold and get onto some more leisure routes and fight VA2 and JQ head on....

(I know they are doing this.... but need to be faster to react)

Rex struggles to fill new Sydney-Melbourne flights

Regional Express had just 21 passengers travelling on its midday flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Tuesday, an industry source says.

www.afr.com

 

[dajop]

Honestly get off the QF stronghold and get onto some more leisure routes and fight VA2 and JQ head on....

(I know they are doing this.... but need to be faster to react)

Rex struggles to fill new Sydney-Melbourne flights

Regional Express had just 21 passengers travelling on its midday flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Tuesday, an industry source says.

www.afr.com

Yes, difficult to compete on SYD-MEL without a loyalty program and especially at a time of suppressed demand for corporate travel.

 

[muppet]

But Rex has cheap aircraft leases and a $150m war chest...

I honestly can't see the logic in spending $150m to buy some market share during significantly suppressed demand.

 

[Must...Fly!]

What does the private equity group get in return for the $200m credit line they extended to Rex? (important to note only $50m drawn down, so far)

 

[muppet]

What does the private equity group get in return for the $200m credit line they extended to Rex? (important to note only $50m drawn down, so far)

Can't imagine much more than a very expensive lesson

According to Rex, they accrue 4% interest unless Rex defaults when it goes up to 12%. After 3 years the notes can be converted to Rex shares at $1.50.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Interesting then. Not particularly shrewd business (in the context of - I am fully expecting Rex to give up on 737s in about 6 months).

 

[Mogul]

Flight back was about 50% full with 4 pax in J.

 

[henrus]

Flight back was about 50% full with 4 pax in J.

Oh wow... a lot of Qantas' secret spies on that flight.

 

[jakeseven7]

Oh wow... a lot of Qantas' secret spies on that flight.

Richard Branson (well used to) flies Qantas alot I think its very good business practice to experience your competitor

 

[AIRwin]

Richard Branson (well used to) flies Qantas alot I think its very good business practice to experience your competitor

First class?

 

[jakeseven7]

First class?

There was a photo of him in J once I saw....

 

[Carrots]

There was a photo of him in J once I saw....

He flew QF F once... he was annoyed as he thought his PA had booked him into J!

 

[antycbr]

If only ZL would work with VA instead of this mainline folly. With VA abandoning anything smaller than a 737-700 size market on the east coast their networks have almost zero overlap now. A perfect match to compete with QF and QFLink.

But no we need to destroy more shareholder funds and run the risk of losing air service in the regions and further government bailouts.

 

[jakeseven7]

If only ZL would work with VA instead of this mainline folly. With VA abandoning anything smaller than a 737-700 size market on the east coast their networks have almost zero overlap now. A perfect match to compete with QF and QFLink.

But no we need to destroy more shareholder funds and run the risk of losing air service in the regions and further government bailouts.

Would make perfect sense.

Perhaps when both Rexy and Bain/VA2 have lost enough money trying to rip each others throats out they will also come to this realisation.

 

[Must...Fly!]

To compete with QF, ZL have to use their own profitable inventory to sell competitively priced connections with VA.

Or they go back to what they used to do and interline baggage only, with everything else done separately. Problem there is I'm pretty sure VA have no interest because there's basically no benefit to them.

 

[Seat0B]

But you're omitting that with delays on the SYD - CBR air route, it's often necessary to choose an earlier flight than one would otherwise.

Punctuality pre-CIVID-19 was appalling on many domestic air routes as I've highlighted >1000 times in the delays/cancellations threads. CBR - SYD wasn't exempt. Cancellations were frequent. The delays/cancellations did not just occur during winter. In the latter, it's well known that a flight departing CBR at 0600 or 0700 is normally not delayed by fog but departures around 0800 until c.1030 can be a disaster, and then there's the compounding effect of inbound delays. There's no way of predicting say eight days out whether there'll be fog unless one has access to a Lennox Walker type.

For a 1000 hours meeting in the Sydney CBD, one may need to leave home at say 0630, arrive at the airport at say 0650 - 0700 (could take longer if one lives further from the airport, and my timings don't include finding a parking spot if one doesn't use an Uber or taxi), check in for say an 0735 hours flight that nominally arrives SYD at 0830, go to Domestic (railway station), catch a train at 0855, arrive (say) Wynyard station at c.0915 and walk to the meeting. (Not all meetings will be in a CBD but I'm assuming it is, as it's where financiers, large companies and government offices mostly are (albeit some of the latter may be in Parramatta). I've built in a bit of a buffer as most of us know that being late to meetings means we miss out on crucial detail, or keep other attendees waiting. T

If the flight's late, one won't be early to the meeting.

Bearing in mind many meetings aren't able to be arranged much in advance, as a random date, I chose Tuesday 17 March 2021 as a QFd day-return, departing CBR at 0735 hours and SYD at 1835. The forward journey fare available was $219; the return $193, totalling $412. At times public servants may have to book closer to the date of travel. The comparisons may not be totally fair as during coronavirus, there's been fewer flights on the route, but demand is also lower so perhaps that's a draw.

Compare this to a NSW TrainLink Discovery Pass that as Mattg has highlighted can be purchased for six months' first class unlimited travel on its very extensive rail and coach network for A$550. They're not transferable.

If the public servant doesn't want that and attends meetings in Sydney just occasionally, a return NSW TrainLink fare - three return trips a day - or same on Murrays Coaches - normally many more weekday departures - plus an A$162-169 hotel room available for 16 March (Rydges World Square/The York by Swiss BelHotel) comes out way cheaper than A$412. There's no need to pay and be reimbursed for the Sydney Airport (Domestic) to Wynyard rail fare with its high by mass transit standards station access fee. Public servants would receive meal allowances but only dinner on the night of the 16th would be the addition and perhaps similar on the 17th if they didn't depart Sydney early enough, as the Rydges' tariff for instance includes free breakfast. The dinner payment on the 17th may be irrelevant as it's not mode-sensitive.

What I and many others would prefer (not your fault, of course Clifford) is proper high speed rail that works incredibly well in so many nations, and for which Oz in the east has the population density.

I too have a little experience in that neck of the woods. But it isn't a competition.

Sorry, but the train is just not a viable alternative, with travel time in excess of 4 hrs each way and departure times suited to leisure travellers not people working. I just googled a typical public service 2 day notice trip and the snip below shows all the departure times from Canberra to Sydney. To make a meeting you would have to be on the 0655 departure, as the later departure doesn't even get to Central until after 1600. Also note that this departure is sold out!








So you are right about the need for a proper high speed rail connection for rail to be competitive as a mode with air travel.

Further on the "go up the night" before argument, that leads to a lot of lost productivity - given that the road trip takes about 3 1/2 hrs (via Murrays) and the train over 4 hrs, plus connections each end, the traveller will lose at least half a day of work time to go up the night before, and the same on their return home unless they are expected to absorb this into their own time and travel after hours. It's pretty hard to justify losing a whole day of productivity to save at best about $150. This is why people prefer to fly, and why government procurement is about attaining value for money, not lowest cost.

And to get back OT, it will be very interesting to see if CBR-SYD route by Rex gets better traction this time around. Things are quite different now for Government travel - travel budgets were already getting tighter, there was already a push for best fare of the day which has often resulted in Virgin up and Qantas back for example, there is a whole of Government travel Contract and the traveller does not get to personally book their own flights, this is done for them by the corporate travel adviser. Additionally the whole need to travel is going to need much more extensive justification after a year of Zoom/Teams (although a lot of people are also starting to appreciate the limitations of Zoom/Teams in some situations). So, it will be fascinating to see how it plays out.

 

[Melburnian1]

Tonight's Channel 7 news (Melbourne) at 1800 hours had a brief interview with John Sharp, Deputy Chair of Rex, and showed celebrations for its first MEL - OOL flight. From what the clip showed, it appeared that the first flight was nowhere near full.

OOL is outside the three day lockdown area for Greater Brisbane that has applied this afternoon from 1700 AEST.

How many of those flying or considering flying to OOL from MEL for school holidays who have yet to book - there would be some - know about REX's presence? My guess is 'a low percentage'.

 

[dajop]

How many of those flying or considering flying to OOL from MEL for school holidays who have yet to book - there would be some - know about REX's presence? My guess is 'a low percentage'.

I guess the importance of knowing may depend on the percentage that search on individual websites vs TA websites/comparison sites (google flights). The higher the former the more import it is that the brand is known, the higher the latter is, the more important price might well be.

 

[henrus]

Tonight's Channel 7 news (Melbourne) at 1800 hours had a brief interview with John Sharp, Deputy Chair of Rex, and showed celebrations for its first MEL - OOL flight. From what the clip showed, it appeared that the first flight was nowhere near full.

I have no idea what 7 news you're looking at but nowhere in the clip, they showed how full the flight was? There were queues of people boarding but I wouldn't use that at all to determine a flight's load.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=931216064356960