Geraldton mayor and Opposition Leader concerned about future of regional aviation in wake of Rex Airlines news

The City of Greater Geraldton is disappointed after Rex Airlines — Carnarvon’s only domestic aviation service — called in administrators and ceased flights between major cities. It comes after newly appointed administrator Sam Freeman posted a video on social media reassuring regional route customers their services are “currently unaffected”. The Sydney-based airline operator suspended services linking Perth to destinations including Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra, Cairns and the Gold Coast’s Coolangatta Airport on Tuesday, just five weeks after launching a new Perth-Melbourne route to compete with Qantas. Regional Express is still taking bookings on its regional services between Perth, Carnarvon, Monkey Mia, Esperance and Albany, as it copes with more than $300 million in debt. It is the only airline currently servicing Carnarvon, almost 900km north of Perth. City of Greater Geraldton mayor Jerry Clune said the announcement exposed the vulnerability of regional aviation. “Nationally regional airlines are crucial for the survival and livability of the regions and support a swathe of industries including mining, tourism and construction,” he said. “Without them rural people cannot get to the major cities to make use of health and education services or engage in many of the activities that metropolitan folks take for granted.” Mr Clune is in support of Regional Capitals Australia’s calls for the Federal Government to sufficiently fund regional airports to boost competition across regional aviation. In a statement on Wednesday, RCA said 60 per cent of regional airports operate at a loss due to costs and a lack of infrastructure funding. “We are grateful to the State Government for the Regional Airfare Zone Cap initiative, however regional airlines as well as airports also require assistance in the face of ongoing overwhelming regulatory and security costs as well as inadequate funding support for infrastructure upgrades,” Mr Clune said. “Our community would certainly feel the loss in the event the services provided by our regional airline ceased.” Opposition Leader Shane Love reiterated those calls. He said Rex Airlines played a very important role in bringing medical professionals and specialists to the Gascoyne, and Carnarvon could not afford to lose such a valuable service. “We know that about a third of the passengers on Rex Express are either medical staff going out to regional centres — specialist doctors, etc., or patients who are actually going in to Perth for treatment,” he said. “The State Government has a very real role in making sure that there is a continuation of those services. “There are other regional airlines that perhaps could be spoken to . . . I think the minister for transport should be making that information available to herself so that she is confident that this situation doesn’t lead to cessation in any services to those regional towns.”