However, new research from Tourism Research Australia has revealed that despite the decrease, spending by those 8.3 million visitors hit a record $32.9 billion, driven in part by overseas students and backpackers.

EY Australia will now have until 5 December to wrap up the second sale process, which was slated to end on 30 June. It is the second extension to the administration period, and comes as the administrator indicates potential buyers are waiting in the wings.

Australia’s second largest domestic airline group was listed as VGN at $2.90 per share, with the price quickly rising to $3.13 per share within the first 30 minutes. This represented a market capitalisation of around $2.3 billion, with 30.2 per cent of shares put up for sale.

Two Virgin flights to Doha were diverted en route after Qatar temporarily closed its airspace due to an Iranian attack on a US military base in the country, while one Qantas flight to London was diverted to Singapore and another flight to Paris turned back to Perth.