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.
The Australian Services Union (ASU), which represents thousands of Qantas check-in, call centre, and freight operations workers, will open the electronic ballot on Thursday to coincide with the national carrier’s full-year results, with voting to run until 3 September.
The new regional jet, snapped in an Embraer hangar in Brazil, is set to bear the registration VH-E2A and the name “Coral Bay”, and is expected to touch down in Australia in early September.