Regional Express pulls all its Tasmanian passenger services

No more Regional Express flights will carry passengers from Burnie and King Island to Melbourne from early April.

A Rex (Regional Express) aircraft on the tarmac at Sydney Airport.

A REGIONAL airline that last week announced it would drastically cut its flights between Burnie and Melbourne, but maintain services to King Island, has decided to stop flying out of Tasmania completely.

Last week Regional Express revealed it planned to cut its Burnie flight schedule from 27 flights a week to just seven. But the carrier said King Island’s seven flights a week would continue.

This morning REX has announced, after an emergency board meeting on Sunday, it had decided to shut down air services in all States, except in Queensland – where the services are underwritten by the Queensland Government.

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However, the airline will continue to carry freight.

The services will stop from April 6 unless the federal and state governments are willing to underwrite the losses.

Rex’s Deputy Chairman John Sharp said the airline supported the strong measures taken governments such as the shutting of borders and imposing a lockdown within the states and discouraging all non-essential travel.

“These measures will definitely reduce the number of infections from COVID-19, prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed and save many lives,” he said.

“However, tragically for the airline industry, this means that we can expect the year-on-year reduction of passenger numbers to nosedive to around 80 per cent from the 60 per cent we are experiencing today,” Mr Sharp said.

“There is a tipping point in the airline business beyond which it will no longer be sustainable to operate reduced services.

“We believe that with only 20 per cent of our passenger numbers left we have reached that point and the Rex Group has decided that the quasi suspension of all services at this stage presents the best option to preserve its cash.”

Passengers with bookings after April 6 must wait until after March 27 to write to Rex’s website to put their bookings on credit for a future flight. No refunds will be offered as is the standard practice of all airlines during this crisis.