On Monday Rex said it welcomed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigation, saying those regional routes could barely support one provider let alone two.

One of those new routes is the Qantaslink Wagga to Melbourne route launched last month, which Rex says has been decimated by coronavirus.

In other new

According to figures supplied by Rex, their Wagga to Melbourne flight used to average 2233 passengers per month, but plummeted to 375 per month throughout January to April this year.

Rex deputy chairman John Sharp claimed the presence of another service would spell huge losses for both Rex and Qantas.

In late April Mr Sharp wrote to ACCC's chair Rod Sims asking him to intervene, claiming that Qantas' expansion was a deliberate ploy to crush the competition.

"Qantas has received over $1.3 billion in bail-outs from the Federal Government and begged for another $800 million as it claimed it was running out of cash," Mr Sharp said.

"It is unconscionable that Qantas is using taxpayers' money to finance loss-making operations that have a predatory and anti-competitive impact on the market."

However a Qantas spokesman hit back at the suggestion that they were embarking on a deliberate loss-making operation, saying there was still profit to be had on regional routes.

"We don't start routes if we don't think they will be commercially viable for us. In fact, in the second half of calendar year 2020, 99 per cent of the time we were able to fly, we generated positive cashflow," the spokesman said.

"Our position was supported by ACCC Chairman Rod Sims who told a parliamentary inquiry in March: "If Qantas has the aircraft, it's incurring the fixed costs, it realises it can make a cash contribution by flying somewhere - it's a bit hard to call that predatory."

The spokesman went on to say that the extra services would be a positive for regional passengers, who could expect to see cheaper airfares and more frequent flights.

Qantas launched a new Griffith to Sydney route in March, and in April they announced they would be doubling the service from May 24.

QantasLink chief executive John Gissing said the route was being upgraded due to a high demand for tickets.

"We've seen very strong demand for our Griffith flights since we first launched the service in March," Mr Gissing said.

"It's fantastic to see the local community has really supported this route and we're pleased to be able to respond by adding more flights to give them more choice about when they travel."

However Rex, which had a pre-existing Griffith to Sydney service, claims their ticket sales had fell sharply in the aftermath of lockdown.

They claim their pre-COVID monthly passenger turnover was 6100 per month, whereas from January to April they sold only 1680 per month.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: