An American company's bid to take over collapsed airline Rex has been given the green light by the latter's creditors.

The move paves the way for Rex to be operating under new ownership before Christmas, secures a $60 million loan from the federal government, and also officially ends its ill-fated attempt to compete with Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin on routes between capital cities.

Rex's administrators announced this afternoon that the company's creditors – including the government, which has poured in millions of dollars to keep the airline running since its collapse – had voted in favour of the takeover arrangement proposed by US aviation conglomerate Air T.

Under the arrangement, Rex employees will keep their jobs and the airline will continue to operate routes to remote and regional

See Full Page