The flight of settlers: Holly Randell-Moon, ‘Aero-regionalism: Branding, mobility, and settler cultural heritage in regional airlines in Australia’, in Bart Paul Vanspauwen, Iñigo Sánchez-Fuarros (eds), Postcolonial Aeromobilities: Branding, Cultural Governance, and Tourism Imageries, Routledge, 2025 | settler colonial studies blog

The flight of settlers: Holly Randell-Moon, ‘Aero-regionalism: Branding, mobility, and settler cultural heritage in regional airlines in Australia’, in Bart Paul Vanspauwen, Iñigo Sánchez-Fuarros (eds), Postcolonial Aeromobilities: Branding, Cultural Governance, and Tourism Imageries, Routledge, 2025

21Jun25

Abstract: This chapter analyses how regional air travel in Australia shapes infrastructural imaginaries through the case study of Regional Express (Rex) airlines. The analysis examines how Rex’s branding strategy aligns air connectivity with rural Australian values and settler colonial history despite its financial ties to the Asia-Pacific region. The carrier’s marketing narrative connects contemporary aeromobility to an Anglo-centric pioneering past marked by mining and technical innovations that “opened up” Australia’s inland regions. The study reveals how regional airports and air routes are presented as catalysts for economic growth, linking infrastructure investment to future development. Through Rex’s aero-regional branding and cultural heritage messaging, investment in future connectivity becomes intrinsically tied to settler colonial narratives of development and progress. This dynamic demonstrates how contemporary regional air infrastructure perpetuates and reinforces traditional pioneering narratives of settler colonial Australia while promising economic advancement through aerial connectivity.

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