An American tourist has received an out-of-court settlement from Qantas after claiming that a toddler’s screaming left her with permanent hearing damage, despite being partially deaf before the alleged incident.

Toll Group has revealed the latest stage of its expansion programme with the acquisition of express air freight business DPEX Group from Qantas Asia Pacific. The deal follows similar moves the Deltec, Skynet and Kwikmail businesses in the middle of last year and is expected to take revenue past A$6.5 billion in 2010.

Former Qantas executive John Borghetti has been appointed chief executive officer at rival Australian airline Virgin Blue. The move has sparked a flurry of activity in the Australian aviation industry, with Colin Storrie also stepping down as finance director at Qantas.

Qantas Airways is cutting first-class seats from all but a few key routes following a 72 percent slump in profits. The flag carrier blamed the figures on falling customer demand and said it was also scrapping dividend payments.

Qatar Airways today unveiled the launch date of its newest Indian destination with daily non-stop scheduled flights between Doha and Bengaluru (Bangalore) beginning on February 22.

Qantas will be given freer reign to raise capital following plans by Australia’s government to ease foreign ownership rules. This would allow the airline to play a greater roll in the consolidation of the global airline industry in the downturn, as well as expansion under new open skies agreements.