Sold: Esken sells stake in Stobart Air for £2 April 20, 2021 Aviation and energy group Esken has sold its stake in Irish flight operator Stobart Air for £2 this morning to avoid the company collapsing. A buyback sale of £1 for aircraft leasing company Propius was initially tabled by Esken in April 2020 when the pandemic sprung into full force in the UK. The buyback was [...]
United Airlines dives to $2.4bn loss as fuel prices soar April 19, 2021 United Airlines plunged to a $2.4bn adjusted loss for the first quarter of the year, dragged down by a plunge in passenger number and climbing fuel costs. The Chicago-based carrier said that aviation fuel costs rose nearly 30 per cent over the three month period, to $1.70 per gallon. At the same time, the airline [...]
JetBlue given regulatory clearance to join transatlantic dogfight April 19, 2021 The UK’s aviation regulator has today given US carrier JetBlue clearance to begin operating flights to Britain, in a blow for transatlantic rivals such as British Airways. It is the first time since the UK left the EU that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has given regulatory approval to a foreign carrier. New York-based JetBlue [...]
Tesla share price slides following fatal car crash April 19, 2021 Two people have died after a crash involving a Tesla in Texas, with authorities saying there was no-one in the driver’s seat. A Harris County constable told television stations in Houston that there was a person in the front passenger seat and another in a rear passenger seat after the crash in the Houston suburb [...]
Rail union gears up for strike action amid fears of 10,000 job cuts April 19, 2021 The UK’s rail union is preparing for industrial action over fears that thousands of rail workers lose their jobs in the coming months. The RMT said that Network Rail had made plans that would result in “thousands of job losses by this September and a wholescale dilution of safety standards, including a halving the frequency [...]
Esken in ‘advanced talks’ with Isle of Man firm over Stobart Air sale April 19, 2021 Esken – formerly Stobart Group – has today confirmed that it is in “advanced talks” with Isle of Man-based Ettyl over the sale of Stobart Air. The firm has been looking to offload the regional carrier in recent months, having only bought back the airline from bankruptcy last April. Alongside a sale of the airline, [...]
Mayor of London election: Shaun Bailey pledges City Hall infrastructure bank as part of Covid recovery April 19, 2021 Tory mayor of London candidate Shaun Bailey has pledged to create a new taxpayer-funded and City Hall-owned infrastructure bank for transport projects if elected next month. Bailey’s plan would aim to “attract private sector finance into large scale, costly infrastructure projects” in order to get projects like Crossrail 2 and the Bakerloo extension funded. The [...]
NASA flies helicopter on Mars in world first April 19, 2021 NASA has today made history by performing the first ever powered, controlled flight from the surface of another planet with robot helicopter Ingenuity. The mini helicopter took off from the surface of Mars and was airborne for less than a minute before landing, the space agency said. MiMi Aung, project manager for Ingenuity at Nasa’s [...]
Eurostar secures lender support as it eyes government bailout April 18, 2021 Eurostar is said to have signed a deal with its lenders to refinance hundreds of millions of pounds of debt as it looks to secure financial support from the UK government. A group of banks, including Natwest, have agreed to refinance £400m of loans that were due to be repaid this summer, the Daily Telegraph [...]
Nissan to idle Sunderland staff amid semiconductor shortage April 16, 2021 Car giant Nissan will reportedly put 800 staff at its factory in Sunderland on furlough due to the worldwide shortage of semiconductors. The Japanese automaker will send about a tenth of its 8,000-strong workforce at the plant home until the current squeeze eases, the Nikkei reported today. The decision comes as it was revealed that [...]