A Gold Coast joy flight business that has been operating for 30 years and claims it was first informed of the decision by a councillor on social media.

The TWU has called ‘winning’ Virgin bidder Bain’s reluctance to state who will be on the new board “underwhelming” as relations between the parties’ strain.

The news comes despite earlier promises that new flightpaths would reduce disruption for locals by allowing aircraft to take off over the bay at night.

Fly-in, fly-out charter operator Alliance this morning launched its first scheduled flights from Brisbane to the coal mining town of Moranbah in Queensland.