'IF I knew what I know now, I would not have got involved.'

Singaporean entrepreneur Lim Kim Hai said this about his venture into the cut-throat world of the airline industry.

He is the executive chairman of Regional Express Holding (Rex) an Australian domestic carrier that is bucking the downturn and turning in a decent profit.

'In hindsight, it was totally stupid and naive. We didn't know how treacherous airlines were,' said Mr Lim.

He is also the first to admit that glamour and prestige did not even figure when he made the decision to invest in a regional Australian airline in 2002.

'Glamour doesn't sell very many seats and glamour doesn't produce profits,' he told AFP in an interview in his Singapore office, from where he runs the airline's headquarters in Sydney largely by remote control.

'If you are in it for the glamour, you will be in big trouble,' said Mr Lim, an engineer by training who serves as the airline's executive chairman.

Trouble was exactly the word to describe the state of Rex, which lost $35million Australian dollars ($42.6million) in its first year of operations in 2002 and needed a further capital injection to stay afloat, he said.

With the second round of capital injection coming entirely from him and his Singaporean partner, Mr Lee Thian Soo, 54, Mr Lim decided it was time for a fresh perspective on how Rex should be managed.

One more try

'My business partner and myself agreed we will give it one more try. We may be foolish but we will try it one more time,' said Mr Lim, a Rex director.

'We dug into our pockets and financed it again and since every cent that is in the company comes from us now, we will do it totally our way.'

And Rex has never looked back since Mr Lim took charge, churning out profits every year through to the current fiscal period ended June with profits down just 5.6 per cent to 23 million Australian dollars.

The carrier has a fleet of 88 planes comprising mainly Saab 340 34-seaters plying routes in south-eastern Australia, connecting the country's main cities to rural towns.

This article was first published in The New Paper.