{"id":692987,"date":"2026-05-25T06:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T06:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/692987\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T06:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T06:43:11","slug":"federal-government-bails-out-rexs-multi-million-dollar-debt-to-multiple-council-airports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/692987\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal government bails out Rex’s multi-million-dollar debt to multiple council airports"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government has paid 100 per cent of the debts Regional Express Holdings (Rex) airlines owed to regional councils across the country.<\/p>\n

Thirty-four councils have received<\/a> part of the $4.8 million bailout, including Dubbo Regional Council, which was owed the largest sum of $598,672.<\/p>\n

New South Wales councils were owed the most by Rex at $1,940,200, followed by Western Australia’s councils at $1,165,400.<\/p>\n

Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania’s councils were owed about $880,000, $580,000, $170,000 and $120,000, respectively.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Dubbo Regional Airport is a crucial aviation hub in NSW, handling roughly 195,000 passengers and 23,600 aircraft movements annually. (ABC Western Plains: Patrick Bell)<\/p>\n

The multi-million-dollar lifeline comes as US-based aviation group Air T finalised its acquisition and recapitalisation of Rex in December last year, 18 months after it went into voluntary administration.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Australian government endorsed Air T’s takeover of Rex Airlines, backing the bid with a $60 million support package and an additional $108 million, which will go towards restructuring existing Australian government debt.<\/p>\n

Dubbo Regional Council Mayor Josh Black said the bailout was a “good result for ratepayers”.<\/p>\n

“Regional airports run by councils face a constant battle to continue to upgrade and maintain the existing infrastructure,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really important the federal government has stepped up and kept Rex flying.”<\/p>\n

A burden for ratepayers<\/p>\n

The federal government has previously stated that Rex is the sole airline operator for 21 regional and remote airports across Australia, including Ceduna Airport on South Australia’s far west coast.<\/p>\n

That airport is operated by the District Council of Ceduna and was owed $78,699 by Rex.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Ben Taylor said that number was much higher in the months before Rex went under in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ben Taylor is the CEO of the District Council of Ceduna based on the west coast of South Australia. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“It was probably double that, but we did see some money flow in before administration,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Taylor added that, for other councils owed hundreds of thousands, the debt was a burden for ratepayers.<\/p>\n

“It’s not the council’s money, it’s actually the ratepayers’ money that’s outstanding.”<\/p>\n

In a statement, the office for Transport Minister Catherine King said the bailout was the latest in the government’s support for regional and remote aviation.<\/p>\n

It said it would continue to work closely with regional and remote communities to strengthen aviation connectivity.<\/p>\n

More news from regional SA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government has paid 100 per cent of the debts Regional Express Holdings (Rex) airlines owed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,338122,338123,338120,98890,338124,338125,338121],"class_list":["post-692987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-council-airports-rex","tag-multi-million-dollar-rex-bailout","tag-rex-air-t","tag-rex-airlines","tag-rex-australia","tag-rex-bail-out","tag-what-council-owned-airport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}