Well, if you don’t know yet, Australia’s popular Rex Airlines is actually into some serious legal issues. Yes, we are talking about the famous Rex Aircraft Graveyard Theft Lawsuit. If you aren’t keeping up what is going on, well, recently, Jet Midwest, an American company, raised a lawsuit against Rex Airlines asserting that they have been illegally taking planes from an aircraft storage facility, commonly referred to as a “boneyard,” in Arizona without disbursing payment. The case has attracted considerable media scrutiny and concerns have been raised about the ability of airlines to manage financial difficulties, particularly during difficult phases like the COVID-19 pandemic. So, why not let’s go into the details of this lawsuit and how things stand?
Financial Troubles of Rex Airlines
If you don’t know yet, you see, Rex Airlines is a carrier regularly flying regions of Australia, but it’s been struggling hard financially for a long time. Just like other airlines, Rex was hit badly by the pandemic, which brought down both the number of passengers and revenue. And just so you know, the company was so financially disabled by the year 2024 that it voluntarily went into the process of getting administrators appointed to help manage debts and/or liquidate assets. Sure, the financial issues of the company can be directly linked to the lawsuit as the ability of Rex to cover the planes involved was emphasized.
What Happened at the Arizona Aircraft Boneyard
At the core of this lawsuit is the aircraft that were kept in Kingman, Arizona, a famous place in the world of planes where they are left to rest and even dismantled. The decommissioned planes are being parked at this location which can be for a short time or for a long period, or which can be the subject of disassembly for parts. Just so you know though, it was the staff of Rex who bought four AM-340 aircraft that were placed here and these became the subject of the conflict between Rex and Jet Midwest.
Jet Midwest’s Allegations
In 2019, Jet Midwest was a US plane leasing and maintenance company, and together with Rex, it made a deal. Then, Rex was the one who had to buy four out of this boneyard for a sum of 2 million dollars, initially just making the deposit of 200,000 dollars at that time. Anyway, the pandemic came and in 2020, Rex did not have the remaining amount. By the middle of 2020, the deal was still hanging in the air. However, Jet Midwest claimed that the planes had been taken over by Rex already in October 2020 and there had been a few payments only.
The Aircraft Dismantling Issue
If you go by this lawsuit, well, the claim is that it is actually Rex Airlines that is the perpetrator of the plane dismantling incident and that they did so without authorization. Jet Midwest alleges that Rex allowed a third-party company called 340 Aviation Services to take valuable parts such as engines and propellers from the planes while they were still operational and to scrap the remaining frames, you know? All in all, it is said in the lawsuit that parts were sold illegally by Rex, who took advantage of dismantling the machines as the whole payment was not for the aircraft.
All in all, this lawsuit was filed by Jet Midwest in the New South Wales Supreme Court, which is seeking damages of $7.2 million (around $10.8 million AUD). So far, Rex has remained silent on the subject of the lawsuit, so yes, there could be some more details that may come out by the time we release this post. But worry not, we’ll keep you posted, so stay tuned.
