Regional Express cuts five routes and accuses Qantas of 'predatory behaviour'

Regional Express has announced the airline will cut five routes while hitting out at Qantas, accusing the national carrier of “predatory behaviour”. The Rex deputy chairman, John Sharp, Monday announced a revamp of the airline’s regional network strategy. Flights on “marginal routes” between Sydney and Bathurst, Cooma, Lismore and Grafton, and the route between Adelaide and Kangaroo Island will be cut at the end of March. The company said this will allow it to “stand its ground” on routes where it now faces direct competition from Qantas such as between Adelaide and Mount Gambier, Melbourne and Albury, Melbourne and Wagga Wagga, and Sydney and Merimbula. “Rex announces it will embark on a major revamp of its regional route network in response to aggressive predatory moves by Qantas into thin regional routes serviced by Rex,” the company said Monday. Sharp said “the expected drag on Rex’s financial position from the losses” on the routes where it was facing competition from Qantas would “mean that Rex will be unable to continue subsidising marginal routes that we have serviced for the past 20 years”. He pinned the decision squarely on recent moves by Qantas to beef up the services it offers to regional areas, saying it represented anti-competitive behaviour targeting Rex. “Qantas has clearly embarked on a deliberate strategy of moving into Rex’s routes that can only support one regional carrier in an attempt to intimidate and damage Rex in its traditional regional market, hoping that Rex would be a less formidable competitor in the domestic market,” he said.<br/>