{"id":87696,"date":"2020-12-02T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T13:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/?p=87696"},"modified":"2021-03-03T18:16:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T07:16:28","slug":"rex-sells-sydney-melbourne-tickets-today-for-1-march-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/2020\/12\/rex-sells-sydney-melbourne-tickets-today-for-1-march-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie regional Rex unveils strategy to take on Qantas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rex
Rex has finally revealed the livery that will sit on its new fleet of Boeing 737s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Australian regional airline Regional Express (Rex) has finally unveiled its strategy to enter the domestic air travel market, and fly capital city routes between Australia’s largest east-coast capitals: Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Rex has confirmed it will initially operate nine return services a day between Sydney and Melbourne, known for being one of the most lucrative routes in the world, beginning 1 March 2021.<\/p>\n

It will then tackle the so-called ‘golden triangle’ when it adds Brisbane to its capital city network in the months following.<\/p>\n

The airline claims it will cost customers as little as $79 for a one-way ticket.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, the airline has also revealed its ‘new’ livery that will embellish its recently-acquired Boeing 737s, which appears very similar to that which brands its current fleet of mostly Saab 340s turboprops.<\/p>\n

Rex deputy chairman John Sharp said on Wednesday, \u201cThe first three Rex Boeing 737-800s will take off between Sydney and Melbourne on 1 March 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cRex will begin with nine Sydney-Melbourne return services a day. By Easter, two additional 737s will be added to expand our domestic network to Brisbane and other capital cities. If all things go as planned, we hope to grow our fleet to 8-10 by the end of 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cRex will offer all the usual perks of a full-service carrier including eight Business Class seats. All fares include checked baggage allowance, food, pre-assigned seating, and online check-in. Lounge access and on-board Wi-Fi will be free for Business Class, whilst Economy passengers can access these options for a small fee.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ex-regional player hopes to break the ongoing duopoly of Australian flag carrier Qantas and rival Virgin Australia, who dominate the domestic scene.<\/p>\n

Shorly after Virgin Australia entered voluntary administration earlier this year, Rex made its grand announcement; that it would expand into capital city domestic routes, acquire Boeing 737 aircraft (utilised by both Virgin and its now-defunct budget arm, Tigerair) and pursue a \u2018mid-market\u2019 hybrid strategy with economy tickets including checked baggage, food and pre-assigned seating.<\/p>\n

Rex only last month signed off on a $150 million investment<\/a> that will allow it to expand its operations to fly capital city routes with six leased Boeing 737s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The airline will draw down an initial $50 million in January next year from PAG Asia Capital and the deal will see the APAC organisation nominate two directors to sit on the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the initial services are well established, we aim to progressively grow our fleet to cover all the major cities in Australia,\u201d said Rex executive chairman Lim Kim Hai.<\/p>\n

\u201cPAG is a well-respected and highly successful investment group which manages more than US$40 billion on behalf of major global institutional investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreparations for our domestic operations are proceeding to plan with our first Boeing 737 800NG aircraft delivered on 5 November 2020. Our crew will carry out training on the aircraft over the next three weeks before the CASA proving flight on 2 December 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Australian Aviation photographer Lenn Bayliss photographed Rex\u2019s first 737\u00a0shortly after it had its old Virgin\u00a0livery removed<\/a>\u00a0at Wellcamp before the regional airline took delivery of it in\u00a0Sydney on 5 November<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The plane has been flying\u00a0back and forth<\/a>\u00a0between Sydney and Melbourne, likely in preparation for its CASA proving flight on 5 December.<\/p>\n

Rex\u2019s timing is likely to cause alarm for rivals Virgin and Qantas, which have both been celebrating record sales as state borders between the country’s largest eastern state re-open after months of closures.<\/p>\n

By placing itself in the mid-market, Rex serves as a threat to both incumbent Aussie airlines.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Adam Thorn<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian regional airline Rex has announced it will start selling tickets between Sydney and Melbourne from today for a 1 March 2021 launch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2700,"featured_media":87697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1379,58],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2700"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87696"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87727,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87696\/revisions\/87727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}