Newsroom

February 13, 2025

Nationalising failed Rex Airlines, plagued with an ageing fleet off Saab 340B turboprops that have significant limitation in hot north Australian conditions, is flogging a dead horse, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) MPs have said.

KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said a straight buy-out, amounting to a golden handshake for an airline that has underperformed over the last decade, would not represent value for money for Australian taxpayers.

Instead, the KAP believes the Federal Government should take any further cash it considers spending to purchase Rex to create or acquire an airline that has a new fleet and a genuine focus on servicing Australia’s most rural and remote communities.

The Federal Government has already sunk millions of dollars into the airline in recent years, with $67 million provided in government grants during the COVID-19 period, an $80 million bail-out given in November 2024 to keep the airline flying after it entered voluntary administration and most recently a $50 million purchase of the airline’s debt.

“This left-of-field announcement by the Prime Minister today puts the KAP in a philosophically-compromised position because we believe the only remaining answer to the market failure of domestic air-travel in this country, primarily as a result of the total domination of a privatised Qantas, is nationalising as it always was,” Mr Katter said.

“The current airline situation is abjectly failing Australians in regard to service delivery and pricing, and particularly so for those of us in the remote areas.

“However that does not make Rex a good fit for a government-owned airline.

“Rex had an opportunity during the COVID period, when it was gifted $67 million from the taxpayer to service and upgrade its fleet and properly prioritise the rural routes it was contracted to service – it did neither of these things and instead tried to expand in competition with the likes of Virgin and Qantas on metropolitan routes,” he said.

“Given the government’s already wasted investments in Rex, it seems an extremely questionable approach by the Federal Government to look to sinking more money into this failed business with old aircraft not fit for purpose in hot northern conditions.

“In our opinion, Rex can go along its merry way and the Federal Government must look for better avenues to invest its time and money into so to realise the dream of the Australian people once again owning an airline.”

The KAP has long supported the return of nationalised airline to the Australian taxpayer.

KAP Member for Kennedy Bob Katter said the last three decades of an entirely privatised airline industry was an unbearable anomaly.

“For almost all of this nation’s history in aviation, we have had a peoples’ owned airline, which at the very least is a policeman that keeps the other mob a bit honest,” he said.

“It is absolutely imperative that Australia returns to its roots with a government-owned airline.

“While this regional oligopoly remains our reality, it will continue to cost residents - in more ways than one.”