Regional Express will cling onto two remaining Wagga flights, after having narrowly avoided losing all of its services due to a nosedive in passengers numbers.
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Their announcement comes in response to the Federal Government's $298 million regional aviation grants, which are designed to provide a "basic level" of connectivity to the cities.
Rex has already applied for the funding, and the money will allow them to hang onto a skeleton schedule of one weekly Wagga to Sydney return flight and two weekly Wagga to Melbourne/Albury return flights.
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Rex deputy chairman John Sharp had been repeatedly threatening to close down all services if the state and federal governments refused to bail them out, but now he says the airline will at least be able to stay afloat.
"Without this immediate intervention, Australia would not have a single regional airline leftstanding," Mr Sharp said.
"Rex apologises that it can no longer continue shouldering this burden as we are fighting for our own life. Rex's first priority is to survive this crisis so that regional and rural communities can count on our air connections to rebuild after the crisis, and long into the future."
Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack said airline services were now even more vital for regional areas, which depend on cities for medical supplies and other goods.
"The Federal Government has been focused on securing a regional aviation network during the pandemic so residents can access their capital cities for essential services and medical freight supplies," Mr McCormack said.
"We have opened the application process as quickly as possible to ensure our aviation industry is able to access the support it needs to operate these crucial services."
This is just the latest government bail-out package for the airline industry, with the federal government spending more than $1 billion in taxpayer money to the sector in response to the coronavirus downturn.
The outcome for Federal funding is expected the end of next week, after which time Rex will confirm its flight schedules.
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