Rex to fly between Australian capital cities

[Melburnian1]

Pre Covid it was always pretty normal across scattered days each week one or two early flights went out dead on VA and QF. 6am runs I always found hit and miss. Some had 50 some full. However Rex is empty every day.

Less than 10 minutes prior to scheduled departure, I just checked ZL042 and QF432, the competing 1000 hours MEL - SYD. Both appeared to have about 48 passengers.

From what henrus, I and others have seen, at least as load factors go, QF (like ZL) is not doing well on MEL - SYD. Too many flights are being operated for the number of passengers offering, even though QFd has reduced its schedules, as has VAd.

Yields will be appalling for ZL and questionable for the others.

 

[Saab34]

QF has heavy amount of seats on offer but don’t forget Alan just wants to limit the cash burn not make profits as such.

ZL is very full SY/ML heading down this morning.

would be interesting to see how Jetstar is going at Avalon.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF has heavy amount of seats on offer but don’t forget Alan just wants to limit the cash burn not make profits as such.

ZL is very full SY/ML heading down this morning.

would be interesting to see how Jetstar is going at Avalon.

The 1200 'high noon' MEL - SYD ZL102 has at least 65, but it's 100 minutes plus to timetabled departure so arguably there should be more.

In the opposite direction, ZL111 at 1300 hours SYD down to MEL has at least 51.

But as you suggest, ZL31 at 0930 hours SYD down to MEL had 138 patrons if EF post-departure is accurate.

 

[henrus]

From what henrus, I and others have seen, at least as load factors go, QF (like ZL) is not doing well on MEL - SYD. Too many flights are being operated for the number of passengers offering, even though QFd has reduced its schedules, as has VAd.

QF has heavy amount of seats on offer but don’t forget Alan just wants to limit the cash burn not make profits as such.

If you just look at passenger loads between ZL and QF neither look great however don't forget that QF still has the big freight contracts. Obviously, we'll never know but QF might be making more money by flying an A330 with 50 people as opposed to a 737 with 50 people due to the increased freight capacity.

ZL doesn't seem to have any freight on their 737 services? Rex's website says all their freight except for regional QLD flights is handled by Qantas. Qantas freight makes no mention of Rex 737 flights nor do they appear on the freight schedule.

 

[Melburnian1]

ZL doesn't seem to have any freight on their 737 services? Rex's website says all their freight except for regional QLD flights is handled by Qantas. Qantas freight makes no mention of Rex 737 flights nor do they appear on the freight schedule.

From memory someone else on AFF has confirmed that ZL B738s do not carry freight (or mail).

 

[jase05]

From memory someone else on AFF has confirmed that ZL B738s do not carry freight (or mail).

They don’t carry any freight or mail for APG on the B738’s. ZL only used on regional routes.
JQ carries plenty

 

[Melburnian1]

On Saturday 8 May, EF provides the following flight tallies. Note I searched whY only, so in almost all cases this will be an underestimate of the total number of revenue passengers carried.

0700 hours SYD to MEL ZL9 - 96
1300 same ZL111 - 76

0600 hours MEL to SYD ZL10 - 31
0630 hours same QF406 - 56
0700 hours same VA811 - 117
(note: QF and VA lacked earlier flights so I chose the first of the day)

0830 hours SYD to OOL ZL520 - 86

0830 hours MEL to OOL ZL658 - 102
0910 hours MEL to OOL VA733 - 168 (full)

My free searches then exhausted.

 

[dajop]

The 1145 MEL-ADL had 130pax whilst the ADL-MEL 0600 carried 100, and the 1330 carried 102 (all including business). The MEL<->OOL flights today had similar loads, although I didn’t count them. Two flights of the OOL and ADL ones I looked at had full business cabins.

 

[Melburnian1]

The 1145 MEL-ADL had 130pax whilst the ADL-MEL 0600 carried 100, and the 1330 carried 102 (all including business). The MEL<->OOL flights today had similar loads, although I didn’t count them. Two flights of the OOL and ADL ones I looked at had full business cabins.

That's a surprise re the J seats, as conventional wisdom has been that ZL's business class is rarely occupied. However at $299 one way for SYD - MEL, it undercuts QFd's normal (outrageous) business class fare of above $900 by a huge margin.

 

[dajop]

That's a surprise re the J seats, as conventional wisdom has been that ZL's business class is rarely occupied. However at $299 one way for SYD - MEL, it undercuts QFd's normal (outrageous) business class fare of above $900 by a huge margin.

On the 5 flights I looked at 33 out of 40 business class seats were taken.

 

[Saab34]

I see they have taken some new aircraft of late no plans for these?

 

[Melburnian1]

I see they have taken some new aircraft of late no plans for these?

Like QF, ZL is a publicly listed company so that may mean it prefers to announce initiatives to media on the same morning it makes an announcement to the ASX. The 'airfleets' site may be a bit behind, as it only shows six B738s in the fleet. How many more do you know of?

 

[Saab34]

I think 2 of those 6 arrived in the last fortnight. I haven’t seen much in the way of new routes

 

[ANstar]

Less than 10 minutes prior to scheduled departure, I just checked ZL042 and QF432, the competing 1000 hours MEL - SYD. Both appeared to have about 48 passengers.

From what henrus, I and others have seen, at least as load factors go, QF (like ZL) is not doing well on MEL - SYD. Too many flights are being operated for the number of passengers offering, even though QFd has reduced its schedules, as has VAd.

Yields will be appalling for ZL and questionable for the others.

Agree re terrible yields for Rex. If Rex and QF both filled 48 seats on the aircraft and Qantas have been able to sell them for 3+ times the price of Rex it will likely be hurting Rex more than QF thats for sure.

 

[Melburnian1]

Agree re terrible yields for Rex. If Rex and QF both filled 48 seats on the aircraft and Qantas have been able to sell them for 3+ times the price of Rex it will likely be hurting Rex more than QF thats for sure.

Don't disagree, but QF's overheads, particularly given many immobile or underutilised planes that usually fly international routes, must be markedly higher (2x?) than ZL's. Despite some QF staff redundancies and attrition, think of all those highly paid layers of QF management compared to ZL's leaner structure.

 

[ANstar]

Don't disagree, but QF's overheads, particularly given many immobile or underutilised planes that usually fly international routes, must be markedly higher (2x?) than ZL's. Despite some QF staff redundancies and attrition, think of all those highly paid layers of QF management compared to ZL's leaner structure.

Absolutely QF will have higher costs but they have also been cutting alot (outsourcing ground handlers, redundancies etc). I would argue though they are in a better place as they own most of their fleet and will just be writing them down so huge on the books losses that they will benefit from in years to come. They also have a huge yield advantage over Rex... some flight selling for $300+ MEL-SYD and don't get me started on their fares to places like CNS...

 

[Saab34]

QF are a rip to Cairns, even Virgin from Melbourne are guilty also, probably a market Rex should hit up. Tiger was 2/3 daily from both Melbourne and Sydney

 

[HS-TQE]

Keep in mind ZL has the oldest ex-VA planes in their fleet, some of them such as ex-VOP were reportedly known to be 'hangar queens' in their later years with VA which would affect ZL's reliability.

 

[Saab34]

A few 4 hour delays yesterday. That was the reason I avoided Tiger with limited frequencies and no ability to recover a backlog. If they start the day with a 4 hour delay they will end it with one also. You don’t normally find out until at the gate. I normally get text messages from Jetstar and Virgin about heavy delays.

I have never had a 4/5 hour delay ML-SY which is why I would never fly Rex on such a route. I had a similar one with Virgin once at OOL however I asked them to send me via Adelaide and still saved 2 hours.

 

[Melburnian1]

Air fares research published this morning by BITRE has a table showing a typical MEL - SYD airfare (thanks to Rex) is basically at 2015 prices in 2021.