At just $109, Sydney awaits!

Canny Regional Express passengers are snapping up discounted fares to Sydney — here’s how you can to.

Last month REX announced a five-year deal with Orange City Council that saw the introduction of additional flights and the $109 ‘Rex Community Fare’, a saving of at least $55 on a regular fare.

The $109 deal is available on 30 percent of the seats between Orange and Sydney, which represents about 600 seats each week. The Community fare applies whether you depart Orange or Sydney, and REX is hoping the offer will see significantly more people flying the route.

To claim the discounted fare you must must book at least 30 days prior to departure, but late bookers could get lucky as any seats still vacant in the final 24 hours before the flight will also be offered at $109.

In fact, around 80 per cent of the community fares tickets sold so far have been purchased only the day prior.

REX told Orange City News that 250 travellers took advantage of the fare in May and to date more than 500 community fare tickets have been sold in June and 400 booked for July.

REX expect the monthly sales to grow to at least 800 in the coming months or around 15 percent of all travellers on the Orange/Sydney route.

While details of the deal with Council are confidential, a spokesperson for REX said the five-year partnership provided them airport cost certainty, allowing them to invest with confidence in the air service.

In the case of Orange, this meant the ability to obtain peak departure times slots from the busy Sydney Airport for five new return services each week.

The additional weekday flights depart Sydney at 7.50am and then 9.10am from Orange. These are times of high demand and it means an additional 18,000 seats a year on the route.

There are now 58 weekly services between Orange and Sydney bringing the total number seats per year to approximately 100,000. Currently there are around 57,000 annual passengers flying between Orange and Sydney.

While it is still early days, REX said the total passengers numbers are growing modestly and they  are pleased with the performance of the additional five return services.

“We hope that this is the catalyst to drive increased passenger growth to the mutual benefit of Rex and the Orange community,” said an airline spokesperson.

Rex has introduced the Community Fare scheme to other regional centres such as Albany and Esperance in WA, Broken Hill, Moruya and Parkes in NSW, and Burnie in Tasmania.

Flights depart Orange Airport for Sydney at 6.30am, 9.10am, 10.05am, 2.10pm and 5.25pm every Monday to Friday, with flights leaving Sydney at 7.50am, 8.50am, 12.40pm. 4.15pm, and 7.10pm.

Two Saturday flights depart Orange at 7.10am and 10.05am, with a single flight out of Sydney at 8.50am.Sunday flights depart Orange at 2.10pm and 5.25pm, and Sydney at 12.40pm. 4.15pm, and 7.10pm.