Background Information.

Regional Express (also known as Rex) is an Australian airline based at Mascot, New South Wales. It operates scheduled regional airline services. It is Australia's largest regional airline outside the Qantas group of companies and serves the states of New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, North Queensland, Tasmania and now Western Australia with a fleet of 55 Swedish built SAAB 340 turboprop aircraft seating 33, 34 or 36 passengers.

The airline was established in 2002 when the Australiawide Airlines consortium (set up by former Ansett Australia employees) acquired Hazelton Airlines and Kendell Airlines. The merged companies commenced operations in August 2002 as Rex. In 2005 Australiawide Airlines was renamed Regional Express Holdings and partially floated on the Australian Stock Exchange. On November 30, 2005 Rex announced the acquisition of the Dubbo based airline - Air Link - another small regional airline.

In October 2007 Rex expanded into Queensland when it commenced operations between Brisbane and Maryborough. This exacerbated an existing problem within the company of not having enough pilots to crew its flights - due to the expansion of Australia’s larger airlines, especially Jetstar Airways and Virgin Blue. As a result  Rex suspended operations out of Brisbane (and from Sydney to Cooma - the route to the NSW ski fields - during the summer ‘low season’) in November 2007. To provide a medium-term solution to the pilot shortage Rex announced that it was establishing its own cadet-pilot flight-training program.

In November 2015 Rex announced the resumption of services to the NSW Snowy Mountains in conjunction with Snowy Mountains Airport Corporation. These flights commenced in March 2016. In December 2015 Rex announced that they were selected by the Western Australia Government to be the operator of regulated RPT routes after a tender process. This was the first time that Rex would be operating in Western Australia. The new routes effective from February 28, 2016 are from Perth to Albany and Esperance. It brought Rex's weekly flights to some 1,500 across 58 destinations.