Funding crisis: PM Boris Johnson slams City Hall for creating TfL’s ‘black hole’ December 15, 2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accused London mayor Sadiq Khan of creating Transport for London’s (TfL) financial “black hole.” “What happened is the Labour mayor of London embarked on a reckless unfunded fares policy that left a huge black hole in TfL’s finances,” Johnson said during PMQs. Responding to accusations made by Labour MP Ruth [...]
Pilot union calls for winter resilience fund as Omicron hinders sector’s recovery December 15, 2021 The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) has written to the government asking for a winter resilience fund to help aviation face the Omicron variant. Citing the restrictions’ financial impact, Balpa has asked for around £15m for the development of pilot training schemes, arguing they will prove fundamental for the industry’s recovery. “Just when we thought [...]
Investors call Wizz Air out over staff rights while shares go down December 15, 2021 Wizz Air was called out by a group of 14 investors over concerns that the low cost carrier does not allow its staff to unionise. The company’s shares went down 2.45 per cent to 4,054p, closing at 3,966p. The group – which includes British fund Ardevora Asset Management – said that while the right to [...]
Toyota plans to build record 800,000 cars in January December 15, 2021 Toyota Motor has already set a new year resolution – starting with building 800,000 vehicles globally in the first month of 2022 – a record for the month. The company wants to increase its output of vehicles by 60,000 compared to January 2021 in a bid to compensate for some of the slowdown in production [...]
Plan B “little impact” on used car price growth, data reveals December 15, 2021 The UK Government’s plan B has had little impact on either consumer demand and user car price growth. According to data from Auto Trader, between 6 and 12 December prices for used cars went up 28 per cent on a year-on-year and like for like basis – a 26.9 per cent increase compared with the [...]
British Airways owner IAG moves to terminate takeover agreement with Air Europa December 15, 2021 IAG, the aviation giant that owns British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus, has moved to back-track on its takeover of Spanish airline Air Europa, bringing down shares by 4.59 per cent to 126.48p. The BA owner this morning said “discussions are at an advanced stage to terminate the agreement signed on 4 November 2019” whereby [...]
Christmas Eve will be December’s busiest day of traffic, data shows December 15, 2021 Data from the AA has predicted that 23 and 24 December will be the busiest days of traffic, with 54 per cent of drivers planning to travel. Motorists are also expected to travel further, with an average of 39 miles. Despite Covid regulations allowing families and friends to be reunited, one in five drivers admit [...]
Toyota invests $35bn in EV development to rival market players December 14, 2021 Toyota has announced it will invest $35bn in the development of electric vehicles (EVs), with the aim to rival some of the market’s biggest EV player such as Tesla. The sum will be divided between vehicle development – as the automotive giant aims to sell 3.5 million battery EVs per year by 2030 – and [...]
Red list to be scrapped from tomorrow, government confirms December 14, 2021 The UK Government has confirmed that the travel red list – which includes countries such as South Africa and Botswana – will be scrapped from tomorrow 4am, less than two weeks after it was introduced following concerns over the new Omicron variant. Testing measures will remain in place. Health secretary Sajid Javid confirmed the decision, [...]
BA restarts Gatwick operations, selling tickets for short-haul subsidiary December 14, 2021 British Airways (BA) announced today it will restart flying from Gatwick from March 2022, selling tickets for 35 destinations that will be part of its short-haul subsidiary British Airways*’s operations. Created to compete with the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair, the subsidiary company will begin to operate as a standalone business from August, with BA [...]