👉 Background: Rex—short for Regional Express—has been flying Australians to the farthest corners of the country since 2002. Since then, it’s become the second-largest regional airline based on the number of regional destinations - flying to Coober Pedy and Cairns...to Mildura and even Monkey Mia.

‍👉 What happened: In 2020, Rex expanded to the big leagues, taking on the Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane triangle. But this move did not turn out to be a smooth landing. By July last year, Rex had hit turbulence, falling into administration and scrambling for a buyer. But sadly, Rex can’t even buy a bid right now.

‍👉 What else: As a result, the federal government has promised to acquire Rex to ensure the regional flights remain operational. If that happens, it would be the first time since 1995 that the Australian government has owned an airline after selling off Qantas.

What's the key learning?

💡When critical infrastructure is at risk, governments often have no choice but to nationalise the company.

💡Australia has a history of going the other way - privatising public assets. We'd be talking Qantas, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank which were all once government-owned. But when a key player in a critical market fails, nationalisation might be explored.

💡Australia wouldn’t be the first country to own or partially own its national airline:

• Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Thai Airways just-over-majority-owned by their respective governments
• And Emirates and Etihad are entirely owned by their governments