Regional communities in Western Australia want higher standards alongside $80m Rex lifeline

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Local communities have welcomed the Federal Government’s decision to throw Rex Airline an $80m lifeline to keep its regional routes running. The money will guarantee continued flights through to June next year, servicing Esperance, Carnarvon, Albany, Monkey Mia and Perth.

Transcript

00:00A lifeline for the regions, now given one of its own.

00:10The airline went into voluntary administration in July.

00:13The federal government's $80 million will extend the carriers' administration period

00:18and secure all regional ticket sales until the middle of 2025.

00:22You can't get what you guys take for granted here in the country, like, you know, we can't

00:28even have babies in town at the moment, that's all to be done out of town, so just imagine

00:33that and then that takes everyone out of town that's related to the person, so it's very

00:39crucial.

00:40WA's Premier, welcome to the announcement.

00:43The $80 million will also make sure that we can look after the workers that have lost

00:47their jobs as a result of the financial difficulties that they confront.

00:52The money won't be used to pay back some of WA's regional councils, which are owed hundreds

00:57of thousands of dollars by Rex for airport landing fees.

01:02With the amount of money that Rex owes and, you know, with what they're at at the minute,

01:06I don't see any likelihood whatsoever that the Shire will see the funds.

01:09This supplies the business of government, medical professionals coming in and out, people

01:17travelling to Perth, tourism and personal business, so it's very important that we have

01:23guarantee of supply of flight.

01:25While still subject to federal court approval, Rex's administrators told the ABC this will

01:30give them time to help improve the business so it can make it a more valuable sale.

01:34They plan to increase the size of the company's fleet and capacity.

01:39And for customers like Carrie Robson, they hope for an improvement in on-time performance

01:44too.

01:45Her Rex flight from Perth was turned around on Monday due to technical issues.

01:49So we'd like to see the quality improve and make sure the flights get down on time so

01:54people aren't getting shuffled around and missed around with just trying to live life

02:00day to day.

02:01More breathing space for a longer term solution.

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