West Australian communities serviced by Regional Express are counting the cost of the airlines collapse. It has emerged that the carrier had fallen months behind on landing fees, owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to local councils who run the regional airports.
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00:00The day after the administrators closed in on WREX, questions around how long the failed
00:08airline will continue regional air services in WA remain unanswered.
00:13There's been no communication officially to date.
00:16What we're hearing is via the gate line.
00:18While assurances have been given by the receivers that flights to Albany, Carnarvon and Esperance
00:24are currently not affected by the collapse, details of future plans are still to be released.
00:31Now councils that run the regional airports are wondering if they'll see unpaid landing
00:37fees estimated to run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
00:42We've been putting a lot of pressure on WREX to keep up with their payments.
00:47We didn't think it was this dire.
00:50The Esperance Shire is also owed money.
00:53We've just been notified by the administrator that that money will become part of the unsecured
00:58creditor list.
00:59It's very early days and I'm hopeful that the administrators will be able to put matters
01:03in place so that they can meet all their debts.
01:06Last year WREX successfully tended for a renewed five year contract in WA, beating out new
01:12operator Nexus.
01:15So I would hope that, you know, even if WREX doesn't manage to trade out of this, that
01:23there would be someone else or some other operator that would step into that role.
01:26Nexus flies regionally to Geraldton, the north-western broom, operating 76 seat aircraft.
01:33We're very conscious that this is a state government regulated route, but the opportunity
01:37came up to provide services into Albany and Esperance.
01:41We've certainly got the capacity, experience and certainly willingness to look at that
01:45opportunity.
01:47Regional communities anxious for certainty.
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