THE NEWS WRAP: Tiger grounded until August as CEO quits

Tiger Airways will remain grounded until at least August 1 as the aviation industry safety regulator continues its investigation into the troubled airline.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority says it will seek to extend the airline’s suspension through the Federal Court.

Just hours after the announcement, Tiger issued a short statement saying its chief executive, Crawford Rix, will finish up at the airline on July 31.

NBN wants firms to train staff to build network

Australia’s largest infrastructure project has put the call out for providers to train the workers needed for the $35.9 billion national broadband network.

The company building the network, NBN Co, has planned staff training to begin in the second half of 2012 so there are enough workers when the full rollout of the network starts two years later.

Palmer buys Hyatt Regency Coolum

Mining billionaire Clive Palmer has branched out into tourism, buying one of Queensland’s premier resorts, the Hyatt Regency Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.

Palmer is not saying how much he paid but insists it is a good business move because Queensland has “so much to offer the world” in the way of tourism.

“Asia’s booming with tourists – they’re going to Hawaii and to the west coast of America and it’s time that we in Australia put some effort in and got them back to Queensland,” he said.

Overnight

The Australian dollar was trading slightly lower on Thursday morning.

At 6.25am, the local unit was at US106.93 cents, down from US107.12 cents on Wednesday.