Newly-replaced Rex Airlines chair Lim Kim Hai moves to dump board

Rex Airlines is facing turbulence just two weeks after launching its Perth interstate services with its former chairman of 20 years moving to spill the company’s board.

Rex, or Regional Express Holdings, revealed on Friday that Lim Kim Hai had requisitioned a shareholders meeting to remove four of his five fellow directors and appoint two others.

Mr Lim, a former Singaporean defence engineer, is a founding shareholder of Rex and its biggest shareholder with 16.9 per cent.

He had been executive chairman for 21 years until he was suddenly replaced on June 5 by his also long-serving deputy, former federal transport minister John Sharp.

Mr Lim’s executive duties were transferred to a new chief executive, former chief operating officer Neville Howell.

At the time, Rex thanked Mr Lim for his service as chair but provided no reasons for the changes.

The company said on Friday Mr Lim’s notice for a meeting under the Corporations Act was received on July 8 and sought shareholder approval to remove Mr Sharp, Jim Davis, Ron Bartsch and Lee Thian Soo as directors. Lim Kang Song and Mukul Soul have been nominated as replacements.

Rex did not disclose Mr Lim’s reasons for seeking the spill.

The company said it would abide by its obligations under the Act but stopped short of agreeing to the request, saying it would update the market shortly.

Already an operator in WA’s regions, Rex launched its first interstate flights out of Perth on June 28 with direct services to Melbourne and Adelaide, urging West Australians wanting cheaper airfares to get behind it.

A new 176-seat Boeing 737 is flying the Melbourne route five days a week. Adelaide is serviced three days a week using Embraer E190 jets flown by Rex’s National Jet Express subsidiary.

All up, the new services will bring 120,000 seats into Perth.

Rex was formed out of two former bush airlines, Hazelton and Kendall, which were plucked from the wreckage of Ansett after it collapsed in September 2001.

Backed by a Singapore-led consortium of investors, it listed on the Australian stock market in 2005.