Rex to fly between Australian capital cities

[Harrison_133]

Rex seem to be facing the realities of trying to run full schedules for all 6 jets. Pretty heavy delays since Friday of 3-4 hours and a few cancellations.

VH-RYU must be having problems. Returned to Melbourne after takeoff on both Saturday (ZL42) and Sunday (ZL437), with different aircraft having to complete both those flights. According to Flightradar it failed to operate ZL18 this morning too. VH-RQC also got stuck on the Gold Coast yesterday, meaning 2 out of 6 jets were out of action.

Sounds like the same story as Tiger’s early days…not enough slack when things go wrong.

 

[HS-TQE]

Considering half of RexJet's 738s were the oldest and the 'least reliable' of VA 1.0's fleet, it's not really surprising.

 

[Melburnian1]

You don't think Qantas and Virgin will be in pain too?

So many variables at play. Also, historically the AUD has risen in sync with the oil price, which has reduced the impact of rising oil prices for those carriers whose main income source is domestic (AUD) (still an impact of course). For example between the end of 2006 and peak in mid 2008 oil rose 130% (give or take) in USD, but in AUD terms it rose only - half about 65-70%. This time the AUD seems to be moving in the opposite direction though, so if that continues - will have the double whammy of higher leasing costs (in AUD terms) and this will also exacerbate the higher oil price.

Since you posted on 2 March 2022, the A$ had risen a bit,m but now seems to be dropping (again) against the US$. Very unpredictable (at least for me).

 

[Harrison_133]

Not sure this is something to be proud of… maybe focus on getting your jet operations publicised instead?

Rex’s Sharp says he’s had ‘tremendous fun’ with barbs to rivals

The airline's deputy chairman said his business “loves the fight” but is only defending itself so strongly because it’s a “featherweight in the heavyweight section”.

australianaviation.com.au

 

[Melburnian1]

Not sure this is something to be proud of… maybe focus on getting your jet operations publicised instead?

Rex’s Sharp says he’s had ‘tremendous fun’ with barbs to rivals

The airline's deputy chairman said his business “loves the fight” but is only defending itself so strongly because it’s a “featherweight in the heavyweight section”.

australianaviation.com.au

Yes, ZL's biggest challenge must be ensuring urbanites are aware it exists on jet routes.

 

[HS-TQE]

The SYD slot waiver has been extended until 29 October 2022. "Sharpy" of course isn't happy.

‘Anti-competitive’ slot waivers extended for 6 months

Australian Aviation can reveal that airlines will only need to fly 70 per cent of their allocated take-off times in order to prevent rivals from taking over the service until late October.

australianaviation.com.au

 

[Melburnian1]

ZL a while back drastically reduced its frequency between Melbourne and Sydney, so no surprise that on Sunday 27 March 2022, the 1230 hours from SYD appears toonly have one whY seat vacant.

While some may not have checked in, the northbound at 1500 this afternoon has as many as 35 Y seats vacant.

 

[Harrison_133]

ZL a while back drastically reduced its frequency between Melbourne and Sydney, so no surprise that on Sunday 27 March 2022, the 1230 hours from SYD appears toonly have one whY seat vacant.

While some may not have checked in, the northbound at 1500 this afternoon has as many as 35 Y seats vacant.

Looks like they’re down an aircraft again and have shuffled flights around. There’s a cancellation on MELSYD and delays across the rest of the 737 network. I’m trying Rex again tonight and got a text message 2 days ago advising of a 2+ hour delay.

 

[Fortunatecrow]

I flew on ZL145 on Friday SYD/MEL. It was pretty full. Sydney airport was crazy, a one-hour queue to get through security btw

 

[Saab34]

Looks like REX has hiked fares. Short Haul $109, longer haul $129.

Gold Coast route appears to be a going very poorly at the moment. Single digits, yet VA and JQ are full. I reckon they should launch Cairns and Darwin as we now enter the Dry season. I recall Tiger operated a seasonal Darwin service outside of the wet period.

 

[Mattg]

Looks like REX has hiked fares. Short Haul $109, longer haul $129.

Gold Coast route appears to be a going very poorly at the moment. Single digits, yet VA and JQ are full. I reckon they should launch Cairns and Darwin as we now enter the Dry season. I recall Tiger operated a seasonal Darwin service outside of the wet period.

They actually announced these fare increases in a recent media release.

https://www.rex.com.au/BlobViewer/BlobViewer.aspx?attachtype=MR&filename=6263525368577A4C54464A6E30743542707473746F3667634A31596F6931436A5864316C6A594E6977326A745574526F614C44622B33626C546A506C416C4946323038546E4B58565A6E6236704D6A4D6142503230773D3D

Which to be honest is a bizarre thing to do, unless the intention of the media release is to send a signal to your competitors

(They can't simply call VA and say "hey, we're raising fares, you can do the same" because this would be in breach of competition laws. A media release is the next best thing. )

 

[Saab34]

I somewhat think the more they charge, the less people will opt to fly Rex and just go either low cost (Jetstar) or Virgin (same price as Rex) due Velocity. I know many that used them previously because they had cheaper flights, ie sub $70.

They really need a FF program ASAP.

 

[Harrison_133]

Gold Coast route appears to be a going very poorly at the moment. Single digits, yet VA and JQ are full.

Very interesting indeed. MEL-OOL seemed to be the stand out route for a while there, which I think goes to your other point:

I somewhat think the more they charge, the less people will opt to fly Rex

If I recall correctly MEL-OOL initially started at $65? That seemed to get bums on seats, but not so much with higher prices.

On a side note, I tried Rex again last Sunday on BNE-MEL. About 120-130 passengers on the flight, so quite good for Rexy. J was filled purely through free upgrades prior to boarding, seemed to be a random selection of people off the manifest. The flights attendants were truly fantastic. Very friendly service. Also, the aircraft (VH-REX) still had VA purple and red headrests.

Flight was delayed 2 hours and 45 minutes. This was advised to me 2 days prior to the flight, which was proactive at least. Check-in staff said it was because of a mechanical issue with an aircraft. Looks like VH-RYU has only just returned to service today after being on the ground for over a week. Highlights the problems of having a tightly scheduled small fleet.

The only reason I chose Rex was because it was ridiculously cheaper than VA when booking last minute. While the service from the staff was really quite fantastic, Rex didn’t offer anything worth missing out on my platinum perks at VA.

 

[Saab34]

Pretty grim numbers this week. And that’s with a reduced schedule.

 

[alexczarn]

I somewhat think the more they charge, the less people will opt to fly Rex and just go either low cost (Jetstar) or Virgin (same price as Rex) due Velocity. I know many that used them previously because they had cheaper flights, ie sub $70.

They really need a FF program ASAP.

doesn't help that they appear to be slashing schedules

 

[jakeseven7]

doesn't help that they appear to be slashing schedules

It is a little weird I've seen multiple cancelled Rex Jet flights this week - covid (yawn) ISO hits perhaps?

 

[Harrison_133]

It is a little weird I've seen multiple cancelled Rex Jet flights this week - covid (yawn) ISO hits perhaps?

Looks like one of the jets (RQC) was out of action for 2 days…again

 

[Melburnian1]

The Regional Express booking engine for ZL152 (1700 hours MEL to SYD on Friday 22 April 2022) shows an economy class fare (one way) of A$499 but a business class fare of A$299.

I can't recall (to use the Daniel Andrews defence) ever having observed this on any online airline booking system before. Does this indicate poor programming by our friends in IT? The other three flights northbound have what one would expect: cheaper available economy than business class fares.

 

[Mattg]

The Regional Express booking engine for ZL152 (1700 hours MEL to SYD on Friday 22 April 2022) shows an economy class fare (one way) of A$499 but a business class fare of A$299.

I can't recall (to use the Daniel Andrews defence) ever having observed this on any online airline booking system before. Does this indicate poor programming by our friends in IT? The other three flights northbound have what one would expect: cheaper available economy than business class fares.

I've occasionally seen this kind of thing before on other airlines, including VA.

 

[Platinum737]

Don’t know for sure, but I think those storms/bad weather in SYD had a bit to do with it - in one case, 20 odd lightning strikes on PAG so im told?

Lots of full flights too - especially SYD-MEL...
I suppose with only 6 jets, they’d need to be creative with scheduling - but they’re doing a lot better than I think most expected (certainly proving the naysayers wrong).

I have a couple of girlfriends at QF/VA, and they say their loads have been all over the shop (full one way, single digits the other).