TfL to review driverless trains as condition of new bailout November 2, 2020 Transport for London (TfL) will have to undertake a review of how to switch to driverless trains as a condition of its new government bailout. Under the terms of the rescue package, which will see the transport network receive £1.8bn in financial support, ministers have set a number of requirements. In addition to the review, [...]
Easyjet boss Stelios loses Telegraph libel case over ‘strawmen’ claim November 2, 2020 Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has lost his libel case against the Daily Telegraph over an article that disputed the outspoken founder’s claims about three shareholders. The suit related to an article published in May in which Telegraph journalist Ben Marlow wrote that the budget airline boss was engaging in “increasingly wild conspiracy theories”. The article [...]
Ryanair dives to €200m loss as coronavirus decimates passenger numbers November 2, 2020 Ryanair crashed to a €197m (£177.8m) loss in the first half of the year as the budget carrier flew just 17m due to the coronavirus pandemic. From the start of lockdown in March to the end of June, 99 per cent of the Irish airline’s planes were grounded amid stringent travel bans and health concerns. [...]
Airlines plead for emergency support as international travel banned November 1, 2020 The UK aviation industry has made fresh pleas for emergency financial support from ministers after international travel was banned for the duration of the new lockdown. From 5 November to 2 December, foreign holidays have been banned – as well as overnight stays in the UK. The decision is a hammer blow to the country’s [...]
New £1.8bn TfL bailout agreed at the eleventh hour November 1, 2020 Transport for London (TfL) will receive £1.8bn in government support to see it through until March after a second bailout deal was finally agreed last night. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the capital’s transport network has seen revenue dry up amid the collapse in passenger numbers. In March TfL received £1.6bn in the [...]
Waterloo and City line closure set to continue indefinitely October 30, 2020 No date has yet been set for the Waterloo and City tube line to be reopened, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said. The route – London’s second-most intensively used after the Victoria line – has been closed since lockdown began in March. In answer to a question from Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, Khan said that [...]
What’s in store for the airline industry this winter? October 30, 2020 Although every industry has suffered due to the coronavirus pandemic, few have been as hard hit as the world’s airlines. At the beginning of the year, the idea of a world without global air travel was for most people a relic of a long-forgotten past, but seven months of extreme turbulence have flipped that notion [...]
British Airways owner IAG calls for airport testing as losses widen October 30, 2020 British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) fell to a €5.56bn loss in the first nine months of the year as it warned passenger demand could take three-years to recover to pre-pandemic levels. The company this morning announced it had plunged to a loss after tax and exceptional items of more than €5bn this year [...]
Could Germany have its quarantine free travel corridor revoked today? October 29, 2020 Germany looks likely to be taken off the UK’s quarantine-free travel corridor list this afternoon after its rate of coronavirus infection doubled in the last week. The surge in cases meant that Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday announced that Europe’s biggest economy would enter a four-week lockdown from 2 November. As a result, bars, restaurants, and [...]
United Airlines opens door to London-New York travel with free Covid testing October 29, 2020 US carrier United Airlines has today announced the world’s first free transatlantic coronavirus testing trial in a glimmer of hope for the travel industry. Under the scheme, the airline will offer every passenger over the age of two on flights between Newark and London Heathrow a test for the disease. The trial will run between [...]