Anti-competitive behaviour has crept into so many of our essential services, including country airports, but there’s still plenty of flying to be done. Sic ’em, Rex
‘A Rex flight is a very “country” experience … you often know half the people on the plane.’ The airline has entered voluntary administration.‘A Rex flight is a very “country” experience … you often know half the people on the plane.’ The airline has entered voluntary administration.in my local area.
Rex Airlines holds a special place in the heart of country Australia. What would we do without it? | Claire KeenanAir travel is an essential service in a big country. While the vast majority of regional airports were handed over for community use, Wagga is designated as a joint-use airport, because it’s next to the Royal Australian Air Force base. It is also home to the army’s recruit training centre at Kapooka.
But we don’t live in the mythical version of Australia that is the land of plucky little battlers, so attempting to out-compete larger airlines may have been doomed from the start. The Sydney airport slot manager is now majority-owned byand Virgin, the duopoly players on those routes. Sydney airport also has a curfew plus a limit of 80 aircraft movements an hour.
“So the government sets this system up for failure. It sets this system up for a duopoly, and therefore sets the system up for higher aviation for higher airline prices than Australians should be paying.” Sims said you could argue that Rex and Bonza “should have anticipated that the system was so rigged against them that they were doomed to fail”. But is this the glorious age of open markets we were promised from the competition reforms in the 1990s?
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