Australia's Regional Express (Rex) will cease operations on a Queensland route, after lodging a complaint against QantasLink for alleged anti-competitive practices.
Rex will stop operating on the Mackay-Townsville route from 1 January 2010, three months after it launched the service.
"We are extremely disappointed that we have had to take this action, however with the fares and capacity now on the route it is simply not sustainable," says Rex's general manager network strategy and sales Warrick Lodge.
Rex filed a complaint about Qantaslink with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission on 10 December 2009.
It says that QantasLink slashed "entry level fares [by] around 35%" and reduced "services to Torres Strait and Weipa so as to be able to dump some 40,000 additional annual seats on the Mackay to Townsville route".
QantasLink operates on the route 25 times a week, according to Innovata.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
