Across Australia, a combination of cost-of-living pressures and a reduction in business travel has led to domestic travel stagnating in the last few years.

Labor last year put on hold plans to buy a fourth squadron of F-35s and said it would instead redirect some of that investment towards long-range missiles.

The news caps a remarkable turnaround that saw Rex obtain some of Virgin’s leased aircraft when it entered administration in 2020, before the larger carrier took them back when the same fate befell the regional carrier last year.

The report details the events of the crash and the subsequent escape by four passengers on board the Cessna Caravan VH-WTY, which was registered to Swan River Seaplanes, after it hit the water off Thomson Bay on 7 January. Two other passengers, as well as the pilot, were killed.