I thought the ‘Other Costs & Expenses Excluding Fuel’ figure was a bit high in Rex’s (ASX: REX) half year results. 

Turns out that a portion of that $146.5 million has gone towards purchasing eggs, and not to add to their inflight meals. 

A hooded Rex board member slinked onto Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s property in Mosman, Sydney in the early hours of the morning on July 12th and hurled eggs at the $19 million McMansion. 

Mature.

Ok, there’s no proof that it was a Rex employee but with the track record of rivalry between the two companies, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone at Rex dabbled in a bit of vandalism. 

Having piloted Qantas for the past 14 years, Alan Joyce has ruffled many feathers from customers to shareholders, and of course, the team at Rex. You don’t become one of aviation’s leading men without making a few enemies along the way…

Joyce brought the red kangaroo in to land safely following aggressive cuts to the business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst these money saving moves won the approval of shareholders, stranded customers were not best pleased.

Disgruntled travellers continue to air their dirty laundry with the airline, being forced to endure obscenely long check in queues, flight delays, cancellations and lost baggage.

Very NOT ‘the spirit of Australia’.

For the month of July, Qantas cancelled 6.7% of their domestic flights and only 44% of planes were on time. Still, things could have been worse with Virgin cancelling 14.7% of flights and only seeing 43% of planes run on time. These figures mark historically low on-time performances.

The Australian aviation industry has certainly hit turbulent times due to high travel numbers and serious staff shortages. Weather and flooding events in NSW and QLD have also added drag to the airlines’ performance. Things are so bad in fact, that Qantas has requested head office staff to perform ground crew duties, asking them to lug suitcases and surfboards full time at Sydney and Melbourne airports for the next three months, and straining many a labour law in the process.

Regional carrier, Regional Express (Rex) took the opportunity to highlight their excellent on-time performance last month, leaving egg on the face of arch rival, Qantas. 

June 2022 saw Rex cancel only 0.7% of its flights, whilst Qantas cancelled 8.1%. Rex also reported their on-time departure rate of 82.7%, pointing out that Qantas’ was only 58.4%.

The rivalry between the two airlines has seen Rex publicly label Qantas as predatory after they commenced services along routes where Rex had held a monopoly as the only carrier. 

The regional airline pulled out from multiple routes and lamented that they had been forced to do so by Qantas. In an odd 180 that left many scratching their heads, the little airline that could announced that they’d be commencing Melbourne to Davenport, a route monopolised by QantasLink for the past 17 years, “and we intend to fly to other regional cities that are currently monopolised by QantasLink,” said Rex Executive Chairman Lim Kim Hai. 

Rex has also recently strengthened their relationship with travel agencies in a move towards doubling the airline’s annual domestic jet revenues in FY23, with no increase in fleet size. 

The Company has also moved into the niche FIFO sector, acquiring National Jet Express, the regional division of Cobham Services Australia and prominent provider of FIFO and freight services to remote areas. 

Maybe eggs are a part of their new offensive strategy…?