Air Transport

Regional Express (Rex) has suspended more services, citing its continuing problem of pilot shortage.

The Australian regional carrier says it will be suspending its Melbourne-Griffith service from 25 February onwards and this will have “flow-on effects for other Griffith flights with a reduction in the frequency of Rex services between Sydney and Griffith expected”.

Rex last October and November suspended some services citing pilot shortage and in the latest statement it says resumption of Maryborough-Brisbane has been delayed to September rather than 16 March this year as earlier planned.

It also says resumption of the Sydney-Cooma service has been delayed to 6 June rather than 19 May.

The carrier has been forced to suspend 6% of its services because it is suffering from a pilot attrition rate of 60%, says Rex, which describes the situation as catastrophic.

Rex has tried to solve the problem by establishing a pilot training school but says the first batch of 16 pilots will only graduate in July and after that the school will produce 20 graduates every three months.

The airline is Australia’s largest independent regional carrier and has bases in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney plus it has started to expand into Queensland.

Rex’s pilots have been leaving to join airlines such as Qantas Airways and Tiger Airways that operate larger aircraft and, as a consequence, can pay more.

Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news