Rex is making more of a push into capital city routes, with the airline to add a Melbourne to Perth service five days a week and three flights per week between Adelaide and Perth.
Both the new routes start from June 28.
The Melbourne-Perth service will be flown on a Boeing 737, adding nearly 90,000 seats a year between the two destinations.
Meanwhile, the Adelaide-Perth route will operate on an Embraer E-190, which has over 100 seats.
Both new sets of services will add more competition between some of Australia’s biggest cities.
“When more airlines compete on a particular route, consumers benefit and our record in the domestic markets speaks for itself – Rex delivers terrific value for money,” said general manager of network strategy for Rex, Warrick Lodge, on the announcement of the Melbourne-Perth route.
“Our competitors cancelled 57 flights in total on this route in the first four months of 2024, while their combined on-time arrival and departure performance was only around 72 per cent.”
“Rex consistently outshines its domestic rivals in on-time performance and cancellation rates and when travellers are booking a route of this distance and duration, reliability is paramount.”
National Jet Express will operate the Adelaide-Perth flights on behalf of Rex.
Director of National Jet Express, Anthony Gibara, echoed Lodge’s comments about the impact of more competition on service and reliability.
Adelaide Airport’s managing director, Brenton Cox, was also pleased to see Rex expanding its route map.
“Rex has been a wonderful supporter of the Adelaide market, including regional links, for many years, and [this] announcement builds on the introduction of services from Adelaide to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane over the past three years,” said Cox.
“It’s great to witness Rex’s growth in the domestic market and offering more choice for travellers on one of our key domestic routes.
“The new service also will help fill a capacity gap and stimulate traffic volumes on this route.”
In other domestic aviation news, Hall Chadwick, the administrators of Bonza have secured an additional two months to try to find a buyer for the young airline, that paused flights at the end of April.
Bonza’s US-based owners have also expressed interest in restructuring Bonza.
