Jake Nelson

The airline, which currently operates 11 of the turboprops for mining and resources operations, has signed a letter of intent for the planes to join its stable this year.

The carrier that would become Australia’s second largest airline group operated its first flight, from Brisbane to Sydney, on 31 August 2000, and benefited from the collapse of Ansett a year later before rebranding to Virgin Australia in 2011.

The Vietnamese low-cost carrier will end its Sydney-Hanoi service on 27 September and its Melbourne-Hanoi service on 3 October, but will gradually ramp up to daily flights from both destinations, as well as Brisbane, to Ho Chi Minh City.

The Indonesian flag carrier will add more services from Melbourne to Denpasar, as well as from both Melbourne and Sydney to Jakarta, as demand rises for travel between Indonesia and Australia.

The fourth stage of the Gold Coast light rail, which would have connected Burleigh Heads to Coolangatta via the airport, has been given the chop and will be potentially replaced by “multi-modal transport” including more rapid bus services and possible future heavy rail.

Agricultural drones are among the technologies that now qualify for financial assistance under the Safe Work NSW Small Business Rebate, with the aim of encouraging their use as an alternative to high-risk farm equipment like quad bikes and side-by-side vehicles.