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Aussie carrier Rex accuses Qantas, Virgin Australia of poaching pilots
Australia’s third largest airline has called out the country’s two biggest carriers, accusing Qantas and Virgin Australia of ‘plundering’ its pilots.
Regional Express (Rex) sent a letter to customers blaming the two airlines for stealing its flight crew.
Rex COO Neville Howell says they have nabbed 56% of Rex’s captains and 17% of its first officers in the last two years.
That has impacted the business with delays and cancellations due to a lack of enough standby pilots.
"These two airlines are causing widespread chaos and disruptions to regional air travel by their selfish and irresponsible actions," he said.
"Whilst Rex’s initiative is successful in responding to natural attrition rates, it is not enough to stave off Qantas and Virgin Australia’s rapacious plundering of Rex’s pilot pool instead of using their not inconsiderable resources to train their own pilots,"
Virgin ‘strongly rejects’ the claim.
Qantas has acknowledged it too has been struggling to fill its rosters to meet full flight schedules and plans to set up a new multi-million dollar pilot academy.
It hopes the academy will train up to 100 new pilots annually.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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