Since inception, Rex has pursued passenger growth in its existing routes by increasing flight frequency and keeping fares affordable.  Despite being the sole provider of regional air services on 32 of its 38 routes, Rex has reduced average fare prices by more than 20% over the last four years and increased the frequencies and passenger numbers by close to 80% for many of its routes. Rex embarks on a strategy of controlled and sustainable growth and targets to grow measuredly about 10-15% each year. As a result of this strategy Rex’s network passenger numbers have grown from around 600K to more than 1.3M per year.

In 2007, Rex started its own pilot training school to address the chronic global shortage of pilots.  In April 2008, Rex announced the full ownership of the pilot training academy previously called the Civil Aviation Training Academy (CATA). The academy has since been renamed Australian Airline Pilot Academy (AAPA) and was situated at Mangalore airport, Victoria, one and a half hours from Melbourne CBD. In April 2009, the academy was officially relocated to Wagga Wagga, NSW onto a temporary site while awaiting the completion of a brand new state-of-the-art 2.5 hectare training facility.

The academy provides high quality professional airline pilot training in a full time residential-style environment over a 32-week period and to date around 65 Rex cadet pilots have been inducted into the academy with around two thirds having already graduated.

Rex has grown strongly since its inception, achieving profits and return on capital that legacy carriers find hard to duplicate and this viability has a direct community through being able to sustainably provide critical and essential regional air services.

www.rex.com.au

The story can be viewed online at: http://au.video.yahoo.com/watch/5018306/13349006

Further to this television coverage, Graham Turner has been interviewed on ABC radio in Victoria and South Australia concerning an interesting Charles Sturt University study on Tree Change motivations and outcomes in rural NSW and North-East Victoria. A significant proportion of Tree Changers interviewed for the study had ‘jumped in’ to their move without conducting detailed research about their destination, and had subsequently been disappointed with their move – particularly the welcome they had received from the local community. For more about this study, see:
http://news.csu.edu.au/director/features.cfm?itemID=A7985DEEBC7F264E51062F1BA068786C
and
http://www.smh.com.au/national/rural-life-not-so-sweet-20090418-aarr.html

Keep an eye and an ear out for more media interest in Live the Dream in coming weeks!