iscover
Opinion: Rex faces years in aviation purgatory
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For any aviation journalist, the website planespotters.net is a godsend. I have no idea who is behind it, but it forensically details the location of every single aircraft, from every single aircraft, in the world. Frankly, it tends to be ahead of just about every journalist from every news outlet in the world. Tap in Rex, though, into its search feature, and a quite astonishing statistics pop up. Currently, Australia’s third major airline has 57 Saab 340s, of which 29 – more than half – are parked. Which is to say, the majority of Rex’s fleet is out of action. In total, Rex’s collection of aircraft has an average age of more than 30 years, a statistic that means they are, in aviation terms, ancient.
This, then, is the biggest reason why the airline is still struggling to find a buyer. Rex provides an essential service to Australia’s regional towns but is doing so with a collection of aircraft that should be receiving end-of-life care or, if we’re being more honest, should be banished to the desert boneyard in the sky.
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