Rex said the new daily service would add 124,000 seats between the two cities and comes weeks after it signed a lease for a tenth 737-800 to expand its capital city network.

The long-rumoured new 787 route will operate four times per week during the peak European season before reducing to three times weekly from mid-August onwards.

The Flying Kangaroo said the new action amounts to an “unreasonable escalation of the dispute” and has previously argued its pay offer would include an immediate 25 per cent pay increase.

In particular, the two organisations will collaborate on the discovery of digital engineering technologies, AI and machine learning.