New carrier to service Albany skies

The State Government announced Regional Express as the preferred tender to operate its regulated air route between Perth, Albany and Esperance last Friday.

Rex operates 1400 weekly flights across regional NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland and uses a fleet of Saab 340 aircraft, which seat up to 34 passengers.

According to the State Government, Rex has indicated it would like to increase flight frequency and seat capacity on the Albany route, compared to the current service provided by Virgin Australia, whose contract with the State Government ends on February 27.

Transport Minister Dean Nalder said Rex was selected as the preferred tender because the proposed service frequency and capacity was attractive, and the proposed schedule was well-balanced to suit community and business travellers.

Mr Nalder said the airline's experience, customer service and efficiency was highly regarded.

However, speaking from Albany on Friday, Opposition Leader Mark McGowan labelled Albany as WA's "poor cousin" in terms of air services and said the State Government should have been able to secure a major airline for the city.

"I think there would have been some capacity for the government to talk to the airlines," he said.

"The Premier of the State meets with Qantas and Virgin quite regularly, they are always after things out of the State Government … I think in the context of those discussions, you should always be talking about regional services.

"Albany seems to be the poor cousin of some other regional centres when it comes to air services.

"I think the fact the State Government has some leverage when it comes to its overall spend on travel should have been an opportunity to try and secure a better service for Albany."

Albany MLA Peter Watson said he was hoping to secure a meeting with Rex and had concerns about smaller planes servicing Albany.

"It's a good airline, but 16 less bums on seats is obviously going to have an effect," he said.

"With smaller planes, do we need security at the airport?

"It means people might lose their jobs, we don't know that, but we will wait and see."

Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington said the announcement was positive for Albany.

"They are a very good organisation and I think we will get good support out of it," he said.

However, Mr Wellington said he was disappointed at the DoT's lack of consultation during the tender process.

"The Department of Transport didn't involve us at all in the procedure, we are very disappointed to learn about the appointment through the media," he said.

"The Department could have been far more inclusive than they were. We own the airport, so we thought we would have been consulted all the way along but weren't."

Rex declined to comment until the contract is finalised.