Charting the way forward on Australia’s aviation consumer protections

As a condition of the deal for Qatar to purchase 25 per cent of Virgin, the domestic carrier pledged to drop its longstanding codeshare with Etihad. The move is likely to hugely damage the UAE carrier, given the tie-up was a major incentive to book.

The country’s Deputy Transport Minister, Joo Jong-wan, said its contents were now being converted into an audio format, while the second box, the flight data recorder, was being sent to the US for analysis after it was damaged.