The Western Australian government says it will impose strict regulations on regional airline Rex, after it won a renewed contract for multiple routes across regional WA despite a growing number of delays and complaints.
From October, Rex will fly a minimum of 22 return services between Esperance and Perth, increasing its service by four flights a week.
The deal will also include a minimum of 24 weekly flights between Perth and Albany, and seven weekly flights from the capital to Monkey Mia and Carnarvon.
But Esperance locals and businesses that have been impacted by regular delays say the regional airline needs to do better.
Chris Hurst, a tourism operator in the region, runs the shuttle bus between the town and the airport.
He said that not knowing when flights would take off and land had impacted customers and his business.
I can't communicate to my staff when they need to get to work, the passengers don't know when they need to get up to go to the airport, he said.
Shire President Ian Mickel has branded the decision to hand Rex the Esperance route disappointed, saying more than 50 per cent of flights had been delayed.
They have not been on time at all. Mr Mickel said that constant delays were impacting locals and holiday makers travelling to and from Perth, but also specialists who travelled to the region to provide critical services.
He said there was a risk some providers would stop traveling to the region if the delays did not improve.
The medical professionals that come into town are just infuriated with what's happened to them over time. There's no reliability at all, and they're having to put their patients back or have 30 consultings in a day, he said, adding that there's no reliability at all.
The transport minister, Rita Saffioti, said the airline was best placed to manage the three routes across the state, despite Rex failing to meet community expectations.
Their numbers are sometimes the strongest in certain circumstances. She said she had been given assurances that the service would improve.
They have given us assurance about how there are going to increase capacity, increase the number of pilots they have available, increase the number of aircraft they have available to ensure they're more reliable in the future, she said.
The terms of the contract were robust, said Saffioti, adding that KPIs had been put in place to ensure customer service standards were met.
The airliner apologised to customers late last month for the ongoing delays, saying a worldwide pilot shortage was partially to blame, but were taking steps to improve its performance.
ReX's general manager Warrick Lodge said the airliner needed to improve its communication with passengers.
We acknowledge the past seven or eight months have been quite challenging and we need to do better with that, he said.
Despite the delays, the airliner had increased the frequency of its operations across the state and expected the standard to improve in October as more aircraft were brought online.
While all passengers had delays, Hurst said, poor communication had been Rex's Achilles heal.
They have had problems with staffing, so there's been delays, which every airline has been impacted by, he said.
People don't get angry if they know what's going on, and I think that's probably where they feel a little let down.