Jake Nelson

The regional carrier will fly three times a week between the nation’s capital and Avalon, which serves Melbourne as a secondary airport as well as Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. Flights will operate on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays using British Aerospace Jetstream 32 aircraft.

Workers will walk off the job from 5:30pm Thursday to 5:29pm Friday, with the TWU accusing dnata of flying in strike-breakers from out of state and working them dangerously long hours in response to industrial action last week.

Announced as part of the airline’s annual results on Thursday, the order will include 16 aircraft with lie-flat business-seats and seat-back entertainment systems, and comes as the Flying Kangaroo plans to begin operations with its first two A321XLRs in mid-September.

The Flying Kangaroo saw a pre-tax profit of $2.39 billion, up 15 per cent on the previous year, translating to $1.61 billion after tax, up 28 per cent.

The plan will include the development of a new Statewide Aviation Strategy, which will have a particular focus on Newcastle and Western Sydney International (WSI) Airports. It aims to generate $91 billion in annual visitor expenditure by 2035.

Renaissance, which has reportedly been rebuffed several times by administrator EY Australia and its sales agent Houlihan Lokey, says it submitted a binding offer to the government on 30 July that will fully repay all taxpayer investments and keep the airline flying.