The big news on Tuesday night was that Rex had entered voluntary administration., with administrators from EY taking control of the airline. This ended days of speculation as to what its future may hold.
While this has only just happened, and events will unfold over the next few days, here are some immediate things to know.
Firstly, the regional Saab 340 flights will continue to operate. Rex is intending to operate these services normally.
However, the domestic 737 services are being grounded. This means that Rex will cease its operations between the capital cities.
Assistance from Virgin Australia
According to a statement on the Rex website, Virgin Australia is offering customers on these services a free-of-charge rebooking. Rex says that they will be contacting customers directly.
For Virgin’s part, they have published a page detailing the offer. In essence, there is a form to complete, and then Virgin will attempt to find a seat on a flight as close as possible to the original time. If your travel is imminent (next 48 hours), you should call the Virgin Australia Guest Contact Centre on 13 67 89. Keep in mind that these revookings need to take place by Wednesday 14 August 2014.
Virgin is also moving quickly to secure three leases over aircraft currently with Rex. These may even be aircraft that were previously with Virgin. These aircraft will be used to cover for the ongoing delays in the 737 MAX-8 deliveries.
Virgin is also looking at a future partnership with Rex on its regional services. Virgin Australia Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka says
Recognising the importance for regional Australians to have access to a comprehensive domestic and international network, Virgin Australia also intends to partner with Rex’s regional business to enable seamless access to Virgin Australia’s domestic and international destinations through potential codeshare or interline arrangements in the future.
Frequent Flyer Points Frozen
During the administration process, the RexFlyer program looks to be going into a bit of a suspension. During this time, RexFlyer members will not be able to earn or redeem points in the program.
A notice on the Rex website states that “accrued points may become available again. Further information will be provided in due course.”
Given that it is only a fairly new program, it’s unlikely many people have a large points balance. Interestingly, EY have noted that there is a possibility of Velocity Frequent Flyer benefits being made available to Rex’s customers. It may be that they are thinking of folding Rex Flyer into Velocity. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Final Words
It’s early days in the administration process, with quite a bit to play out over the next few weeks. However, it looks like Rex will be returning to its place as a regional airline operator.
