Australian regional carrier Rex has opened service between Adelaide Airport (ADL) and Brisbane Airport (BNE), its third route from ADL.

Rex will operate the BNE-ADL route daily with a Boeing 737-800. The carrier's Deputy Chairman John Sharp says in a statement that the service will provide an additional 124,000 annual seats on the BNE-ADL route.

Alliance Airlines operates multiple daily flights on the route on behalf of Qantas. JetStar, Qantas’ wholly-owned LCC subsidiary, also operates between BNE and ADL.

“Our forward bookings on Adelaide-Brisbane indicate that passengers, fed up with poor reliability and lousy service offered by other carriers, are already embracing Rex’s outstanding record of operational excellence,” Sharp says.

Rex now operates daily flights from ADL to BNE, Melbourne Airport (MEL) and Sydney Airport.

Adelaide Airport Managing Director Brenton Cox says Rex’s service to BNE “comes on the back of the strong demand we’ve already witnessed on services from Adelaide to Melbourne and Sydney.”

 “Rex has long been a strong supporter of the South Australian aviation market, and we’re delighted that its domestic expansion is making a tangible difference and offering our customers more choice,” Cox adds.

Speaking of Rex’s new ADL-BNE route, Brisbane Airport CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff notes the service “restores capacity between Brisbane and Adelaide to pre-pandemic levels,” adding, “When you combine Rex’s regional footprint across Queensland and South Australia with Brisbane Airport’s vast network, this a great result for travelers from two states.”

Rex operates a fleet of 58 Saab 340s and nine 737-800s to 56 destinations throughout Australia.

The airline says it will use the arrival of its 10th 737-800 in November to operate additional capacity between BNE and MEL from Dec. 16  to Jan. 7 “to satisfy demand.”