Overnight it was announced that Regional Express Holdings and a number of its subsidiaries have entered voluntary administration.
Samuel Freeman, Justin Walsh and Adam Nikitins of Ernst & Young Australia (EY Australia) have been appointed Joint and Several Voluntary Administrators by the Rex Group's respective Boards of Directors.
My department has been engaging with EY overnight and further conversations will take place today.
Rex is an important airline for regional and remote communities and Rex's continuation is in the best interests of regional Australians, the travelling public, its workers and the aviation sector.
The Government will work closely with the administrator to determine a path forward that ensures regional aviation has a strong future in this country.
In the short term, we have engaged with a number of airports to seek their continued support for Rex and I encourage all stakeholders, customers, and commercial partners to remain supportive as Rex works through this process.
This will obviously be a distressing time for employees of Rex and it is important the administrators provide timely advice to staff who have been affected.
Both Virgin and Qantas have said they will look into opportunities to support Rex workers affected by today's announcement.
I understand that the administrator is also speaking directly with employee representatives.
For Rex customers, the administrator has advised my department that:
- they plan for all regional flights to continue as scheduled.
- all Rex domestic flights between major cities are cancelled - however, advice from Rex is that customers can rebook through Virgin Australia at no extra cost (subject to terms and conditions) by contacting Virgin Australia on 13 67 89 or http://www.virginaustralia.com.
The Qantas Group has also advised that Rex customers impacted by cancelled flights due to the grounding of their domestic jet services can contact Qantas and Jetstar to be reaccommodated on the same route as their original booking at no charge, where seats are available.
Customers with an impacted Rex booking can contact Jetstar via their Live Chat function or on 13 15 38 and Qantas on 13 13 13 to make a booking.
