Rex - Regional Express (ZL, Wagga Wagga) is scaling back scheduled services across ten routes in Australia as workforce shortages and supply chain issues bite. The reductions are restricted to the airline's Saab 340B operated routes. This follows the carrier recently apologising for the high rate of cancellations and delays across its Western Australia intrastate services.
Implemented from May 1, 2023, Rex's frequencies are reducing on the following routes;
- Sydney Kingsford Smith - Broken Hill
- Sydney Kingsford Smith - Wagga Wagga
- Melbourne Tullamarine - Wagga Wagga;
- Melbourne Tullamarine - Mount Gambier;
- Adelaide International - Whyalla;
- Adelaide - Port Lincoln;
- Adelaide - Ceduna
- Adelaide - Broken Hill; and
- Cairns - Bamaga
Rex will also suspend services between Adelaide and Mildura. Rex is the only operator on that 400 kilometre sector, which it presently flies five times per week. The airline also the only operator on the Adelaide - Ceduna, Adelaide - Broken Hill, and Melbourne - Mount Gambier routes. It competes with QantasLink, the regional subsidiary of Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) on every other route except Cairns - Bamaga, where Skytrans (QN, Cairns) acts as a competitor.
"These adjustments are necessitated by the chronic shortage of airline professionals, particularly pilots and engineers, as well as the severe disruption in the supply chain of aircraft and engine parts," Network Strategy GM Warrick Lodge told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). "We pledge that we will reinstate the services once the situation has stabilised.
The cutbacks follow Lodge apologising in the media in mid-April about reliability issues impacting services in Western Australia where Rex operates scheduled services on four routes; Perth International - Esperance, Perth International - Albany, WA, Perth International - Monkey Mia, and Perth International - Carnarvon. Lodge said service reliability was not "up to the standards" that passengers expect. While acknowledging supply chain issues was impacting the availability of parts, Lodge told the ABC at the time that pilot attrition was at highs not seen since the global financial crisis. He said pilots were being recruited at a rapid rate by Qantas, Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International), and other international carriers.
"The shortage of pilots can also be a product of other delays, which then means that our crew might run out of hours, which is a regulatory requirement," he said. "Because of the crew numbers being tighter than normal, we don't have the normal buffer to be able to call in additional pilots, so the tighter crew numbers do impact service levels. It's not a simple fix, so I just want people to understand that Rex is working extremely hard to address these issues."
