Regional Express (Rex) today announced that it will temporarily suspend its single return service which operates six times per week between Sydney and the Snowy Mountains (Cooma). The service will be suspended from 19 November 2007 to 18 May 2008.
Rex General Manager Network Strategy and Sales, Warrick Lodge, said that the airline industry is facing a current and potential future shortage of pilots. Mr Lodge indicated that while Rex has been proactive in recruiting and training flight crew, in recent weeks the airline had been forced to cancel some services due to crew sickness.
“To ease the pressure on flight crew availability we have undertaken a review to lessen the potential for unplanned flight cancellations by temporarily scaling back some services. This has resulted in our Sydney to Snowy Mountains services being suspended over the summer off-season period.
“The Sydney to Snowy Mountains route is heavily influenced by stronger demand associated with the winter snow-season with the majority of travel occurring in the four months from June to September. By temporarily suspending the Snowy Mountains services during the off season we will ease the pressure on flight crew availability and unplanned cancellations across the remainder of our network which have higher levels of demand year round.
“Historically, Rex has achieved the lowest cancellation rate in the Australian airline industry and we are striving to get back to these levels”, Mr Lodge said.
Customers holding a reservation for travel between 19 November 2007 are 18 May 2008 are entitled to a full refund which can be processed by calling the Rex Customer Contact Centre on 13 17 13.
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