Just hours into the start of a new work week, it was all hands on deck inside Rex’s unassuming head office in the heart of Sydney.
On Monday, the publicly listed regional carrier had entered a trading halt of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), pledging to deliver an update about the company by Wednesday.
Less than 24 hour later, in the absence of any information from the airline, speculation was rife that it was a matter of when — not if — the company would be entering voluntary administration.
Behind the scenes, emergency talks between consulting firm EY and executives from Rex were underway, as both sides tried to find a solution to stop the embattled carrier from financially bleeding out.
The source of the problem was clear: its capital city airline operation was costing $1 million a week to remain in the air. Now it was just a matter of cauterising the wound.
Outside of Mascot, Rex’s 2,000-strong workforce endured a vastly different Tuesday.
Throughout the day, some employees were being turned away from hotels, while others were unable to book rides with the company’s Uber account.
But there was no communication from the company at all, minus a quiet directive to suspend all flight bookings for inter-city routes on…