Administrators for Rex Airlines have told employees that the company is unable to pay their wages due to its "very perilous financial position".A decision about the future of the airline's capital city business is expected to be made by the end of the day.
Consultancy firm EY has been appointed to oversee the administration of the business, with administrators beginning their consultation with staff on Wednesday morning.A recording of the meeting, sent to the ABC after it had concluded, heard administrators tell employees of Rex Airlines — the entity which operates the domestic routes between capital cities — that the business is in a "very perilous financial position and has access to almost no funds".
"With the business not operating and unlikely, almost certainly, not able to recommence operations in the future, it's unfortunately the administrators view that the position of each of the staff of the company on this call needs to become redundant. A total of 360 people with Rex Airlines will be made redundant, with an additional 250 employees to be made redundant in its Regional Express division — which operates flights in regional and rural Australia — despite it remaining operational.Asked when Rex will have the money to pay redundancy entitlements owed to staff, Mr Walsh said that process could take "months".
The message also included a link to a Microsoft Teams meeting for 9am on Wednesday, which was also sent to the personal email addresses of staff.