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Rex’s deputy chairman, John Sharp, has quipped that Qantas’s menu is more concerned with “fancy words” and “celebrity chefs” than providing meals customers enjoy.
Speaking to BOSS magazine, Sharp said his airline was instead reintroducing pork schnitzel to its business offering because it’s the kind of comfort food people love at the pub or RSL.
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“If you go to the rugby or the cricket, at halftime, if you go into one of the boxes, they’ll bring out sausage rolls and party pies, and they just disappear,” he said.
“Everybody has three or four. They wouldn’t order those things themselves because they think it’s a bit ordinary. But once the sausage rolls and party pies are out there, people gobble them up.”
His comments significantly follow a backlash to rival Qantas’s decision to stop offering vegetarian meals on shorter flights. The Flying Kangaroo eventually reversed the decision before unveiling a fuller, post-pandemic menu.
Sharp is well known in the industry for his droll putdowns of rivals and told Australian Aviation last year he’s had “tremendous fun” making his retorts.
The former National politician added his business “loves the fight” but said he is only defending Rex so strongly because it’s a “featherweight in the heavyweight section” battling to “stay in the ring”.
Sharp’s been involved in a longstanding war of words with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce over the Flying Kangaroo’s decision to launch services on previously Rex-exclusive regional routes. He once said of Joyce that he doesn’t know how he can “look at himself in the mirror some mornings”.
In the same BOSS interview, meanwhile, the deputy chairman also said he doubts Bonza’s upcoming route between Coffs Harbour and the Sunshine Coast could work because the two destinations are similar.
“Coffs Harbour is a great place [with a] great hinterland, nice beaches, lovely climate,” he said. “Maroochydore [in the Sunshine Coast] has nice beaches and a nice climate.
“Coffs Harbour is in NSW, and people have their business and professional connections in Sydney. There is a small market from Coffs Harbour to Brisbane, but I can’t imagine anyone wants to go from Coffs Harbour to Maroochydore.”
Bonza is the first Australian operator to attempt to fly so-called “point-to-point” leisure services that skip out major cities and allow consumers to fly direct from holiday destination to holiday destination. The business has said 93 per cent of its final network – 25 out of its 27 routes – are not currently flown by any other airline, while 96 per cent are not served by any other low-cost carrier.
The strategy contrasts strongly with Rex’s, which is flying traditional capital city routes with its new fleet of leased 737s.
