Rex to fly between Australian capital cities

[Saab34]

I have asked a few people about Rex in the workplace. Nobody has ever heard of them. They didn’t even know they flew Regional turboprop routes.

It’s pretty much just QF/JQ/VA in people’s minds. I know some that went to book direct with Jetstar, I had to point out VA was cheaper with baggage. ‘Oh Jetstar is always the cheapest’ they said.

 

[jase05]

Surely ZL's biggest problem is that in the major cities, most prospective flyers don't know, or don't consider, it.

My brother is one of those that shops around for the lowest prices but even he prefers to spend a couple of bucks more to fly with VA over ZL because of VFF. His 4 or 5 family trips a year with family pooling allows him to earn a few points and possibly have some status and until ZL can offer similar I think they might struggle. VA also offer a pretty good network too

 

[jakeseven7]

Surely ZL's biggest problem is that in the major cities, most prospective flyers don't know, or don't consider, it.

Perhaps yes but if they are booking via Webjet etc they will be thrown up as an option and are often cheaper than VA2. I honestly don’t know what a budget / budget leisure traveller would pick, Rexy v VA2 v Jetstar…. I guess we will find out in 12
Months or so?

 

[jase05]

Posted these elsewhere but not great for Rex albeit only a small sample


Looking at the SYD-MEL 0700 departure today and we had (J/Y seating)
ZL9 4/30 (18%)
VA808 8/152 (90%)
Tomorrow morning not looking any better
ZL9 0/24 (14%)
VA808 8/137 (82%)

In the opposite direction this morning MEL-SYD
0930 VA829 7/132 (79%)
1000 ZL42 8/20 (12%)
1100 VA837 5/145 (86%)

The arvo flights are much better with up around 65% capacity (which still isn’t great) but it’s apparent the early morning flights are just not a winner. Not sure how long they can keep flying at sub 20% capacity

 

[dajop]

Still don't understand why loyalty program is not an absolute priority. A fundamental misunderstanding of the Australian aviation market which is all about locking in customers and mining their data.

 

[jase05]

Still don't understand why loyalty program is not an absolute priority. A fundamental misunderstanding of the Australian aviation market which is all about locking in customers and mining their data.

Agreed.
I still think VA and ZL should’ve entered into some sort of partnership with a joint FFP and have a unique alliance that would serve a large area of Australia.

 

[henrus]

I still think VA and ZL should’ve entered into some sort of partnership with a joint FFP and have a unique alliance that would serve a large area of Australia.

I would have thought ZL and QF would have been a better fit, ZL (Sharp in particular) is always saying such nice things about QF it's just a logical partnership /s.

In all serious though it'll never happen, for VA it would be dumb as it'd encourage their members to fly with a competitor and ZL would want more control over velocity.

 

[docjames]

Hard to see how they can stay viable if those loads persist.

How many flights a day are VA running (vs QF or JQ)?

 

[Mattg]

Also worth nothing that many of the Rex passengers in J are free upgrades.

 

[Harrison_133]

Also worth nothing that many of the Rex passengers in J are free upgrades.

Tried out Rex for the first time yesterday. They were indeed doing this – all the J seats filled at the gate before boarding.

Didn’t get an upgrade but managed to get Row 3 at no extra cost. Only reminder of VA was the purple divider, all grey headrests now. Y ended up with about 20 pax. 2 of them were in Rex uniform.

 

[aikman]

What is better? A free upgrade to a full J cabin or a whole row in Y to yourself?

 

[dajop]

In all serious though it'll never happen, for VA it would be dumb as it'd encourage their members to fly with a competitor and ZL would want more control over velocity.

If Rex could be persuaded to stop pouring money down the drain (via 737 ops) and focus on their core Saab fleet - as well as testing and bringing in Saab replacement (such as the smaller ATR), strategically would make a lot of sense.

Taken to an ultimate conclusion (although very unlikely). ZL could repaint their aircraft and operate in the 30-70 seat market on behalf of VA. Win win. But I am sure this won’t happen.

 

[eastwest101]

If Rex could be persuaded to stop pouring money down the drain (via 737 ops) and focus on their core Saab fleet - as well as testing and bringing in Saab replacement (such as the smaller ATR), strategically would make a lot of sense.

Taken to an ultimate conclusion (although very unlikely). ZL could repaint their aircraft and operate in the 30-70 seat market on behalf of VA. Win win. But I am sure this won’t happen.

That would be the logical and the economically rational way for things to pan out (especially now that Qantas has a 20% blocking stake in Alliance). Unfortunately in the airline industry reason/logic and good business sense seems a bit elusive. Surely even Bain can see the logic in this, sure they want to be a B737 single fleet airline, but when they want to sell it off won't it be an easier sell if they have a co-operative partner to fly the stuff thats not big enough to justify a B737 service? At the moment why would you buy Virgin? Its a shopworn brand in an industry that destroys capital with a larger established competitor (the Qantas Group) that has no unique seling point, why buy Virgin when you could lease your own narrow body jets and set up the business from the ground up without all the legacy issues?

Pretty much everyone in the industry can see this, and its as plain as the nose on your face, except for the upper management of VA2/Bain and Rex who just can't quite connect the dots yet.....

 

[henrus]

Didn’t get an upgrade but managed to get Row 3 at no extra cost. Only reminder of VA was the purple divider, all grey headrests now. Y ended up with about 20 pax. 2 of them were in Rex uniform.

and the plot thickens... ZL was once accusing Qantas of having spies onboard ZL flights... now it's ZL filling their own seats with staff to make it look like they've got extra numbers

 

[HS-TQE]

Pretty much everyone in the industry can see this, and its as plain as the nose on your face, except for the upper management of VA2/Bain and Rex who just can't quite connect the dots yet.....

Private Equity 'pride' unfortunately, especially with the current battle of Singapore (PAG) vs USA (Bain). I do suspect Bain are just waiting it out for 'Administration' before swooping on what's actually valuable at REX.

Now that the existing PE firms are facing a 3rd Private Equity firm (777 Partners) in the face of 'Bonza', it's going to be a battle of the PE firms in the Australian Airline industry.

 

[Melburnian1]

Strange that it is $119 BNE-MEL but it is $139 MEL-BNE.

Hardly. People want to escape, although it may be a case of jumping from the frying pan into...

Thousands have already departed Victoria. More will do so.

 

[jase05]

Whatever the reason, the morning flights just aren’t working for ZL.
The arvo flights have much better patronage but are still down on QF and VA who were both almost at capacity for similar departure times.
Snapshot of SYD-MEL 0700 today
- QF409 12/162 (100%)
- VA808 7/162 (96%)
- ZL9 6/46 (30%)

Tomorrow mornings flights tell a familiar tale with both QF and VA running full flights whilst ZL only has about 30 onboard at this stage.

 

[henrus]

Tomorrow mornings flights tell a familiar tale with both QF and VA running full flights whilst ZL only has about 30 onboard at this stage.

New marketing pitch... guaranteed social distancing on-board.

 

[AIRwin]

New marketing pitch... guaranteed social distancing on-board.

In addition to the COVID refund guarantee...

 

[henrus]

In addition to the COVID refund guarantee...

Rex. Australia's most covid safe airline!

On the note of covid refund, I'm tempted to book the inaugural from BNE-SYD (and probably fly back same day) but if testing is required even for a day trip not leaving the airport then I'm not interested. Unlike Jetstar who actually allow for changes/credits if changes to testing requirements occur, it's unclear what position rex have on this issue.