Airlines for Australia and New Zealand and the Australian Airports Association have congratulated administrator EY Australia and the federal government for the pending sale of Rex to American firm Air T, which will end a lengthy voluntary administration period.
The American company, which was confirmed on Tuesday night to be buying Rex, expects to close the acquisition by year’s end pending creditor and other approvals, and has entered into an agreement with the Australian government to restructure the airline’s financing arrangements.
Administrator EY Australia announced on Tuesday evening that the airline will be bought by American firm Air T, a deal which had been all but confirmed by reporting in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this week.
Official BITRE figures released for last financial year showed that Qantas Group beat Virgin Australia overall on both on-time arrivals and on-time departures, but that Virgin had the highest completion rate of the major airlines.
Flight JQ88 took off from Newcastle shortly before 10am on Tuesday aboard the A321neo LR VH-OFL, having landed as JQ89 from Denpasar just after 7:30am. Flights will operate three times per week, bringing more than 70,000 seats per year between Bali and the NSW Hunter region.
The Herald has reported that “sources with knowledge of the deal”, who cannot speak publicly, said the announcement – alongside the terms of the buyout – could be made as early as this week after Air T agreed to the deal first rumoured to be in the works last month.