The five-year agreement with both councils, announced on Thursday, introduces a $129 ‘Rex Community Fare’ that will be available on 25 per cent of seats between Narrandera-Leeton and Sydney for bookings of at least 30 days before departure.

The latest announcement comes after the airline and Griffith City Council partnered in September 2018.

Junee mother Lou Stapleton, who flies multiple times a year to visit her son in Brisbane, said the scheme would benefit local residents.

“While it’s not direct to Brisbane, any help with flights to Sydney would be a good start,” Ms Stapleton said.

“Anything to ease costs is a positive for Wagga, so I’m unsure why it’s not been introduced here.”

“Hopefully Rex can look at servicing other places with the cheaper prices.”

In June this year, she forked out extra money to Brisbane after her JetGo flights were cancelled due to the company entering voluntary administration.

“When our flights were cancelled, we packed our bags and drove because it was cheaper,” Ms Stapleton said.

Wagga City Councillor Vanessa Keenan, a proponent of more efficient regional transport, said “any improvements to transport connections for regional communities is a positive”.

“There’s strong demand for affordable airfares to and from Wagga – a significant number of people travel...for holiday, health and business reasons,” Cr Keenan said.

“Affordable airfares can help to attract Sydneysiders to places such as Wagga assuring them they’re not too far from friends and family.

“I’m sure Wagga residents would make the most of community fares if they were to be introduced here.”

Strategic Aviation Solutions chairman Neil Hansford said that while the scheme would be benefit customers, he believed Wagga City Council had “no desire to provide incentives for Rex to drop their prices”.

“I think council’s looking to avoid the repeat of JetGo,” he said.

“There’s also no reason for Rex to give away revenue by lowering fares any lower than Qantas’ prices.”

In response, a Rex spokesperson said there had been no demand from Wagga residents to introduce its program in the city.

“The Rex Community Fare scheme is designed in a way that can work only on routes that are solely operated by Rex,” the spokesperson said.

“It requires a five-year agreement with the local council and the regional airport owner, which includes agreed airport charges for the agreement.”

The agreements with Narrandera and Leeton came after both councils contacted Rex.

“[We were] given a very strong commitment from both,” the airline spokesperson said.

“Due to the Narrandera and Leeton flights being shared with Griffith, there was also a very solid case to make the community fare scheme available to the Narrandera and Leeton communities.”

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