I discussed the recent history of regional and country airline Regional Express (alias REX) Airlines in image 0305 of today's shoot. Prior to it coming into a fist full of government pandemic relief funds and doing a capital raising so that it could lease some jets, as I mentioned REX's schtick was to run little twin turboprops between capital cities and small towns that many city slickers have never heard of, or between those towns. Running flights of 30-something passengers (if you're lucky enough to have a full load) out to Dubbo isn't what you would call "making fat stacks", so REX has always had a "run on the smell of an oily rag" vibe. That's not disparagement, by the way; those small towns NEED a service like this and if REX could make a living providing it on slim margins, then I for one will gladly raise a sincere toast to their corporate health.

It DOES, however, mean that their aircraft tend to be, shall we say, not the youngest in the sky, and to have a relatively high body count when it comes to past owners.

This little SAAB 340B turboprop (VH-RXE), for instance, has seen more life than you might expect. It was first assigned to Business Express Airlines in the US way back in December of 1991. It bounced through a couple of other regional US airways in the 1990s before finally being leased to REX in December 2003 and has been there for the last 20 years. That's 31.4 years in total.

This is flight ZL6852 Sydney (06:55) to Dubbo (07:56). If you're from outside Australia, yes, there really IS a place called Dubbo. Yes, it's pretty much like it sounds. From there it went to Broken Hill (you don't want to know) arriving at 09:24. It departed at 10:28 to return to Sydney (arriving 13:15), departed at 14:44 to go up the coast to Port Macquarie (arriving at 15:35), departed at 16:11 for Sydney again, arriving at 17:10, then got ready to go back up to Port Macquarie at 18:15 except... her poor old 31 year old bones were stuffed and that flight was cancelled.

Still, it was a big day of work for a plane that hardly looks her age.