Airlines call on Rishi Sunak to waive passenger tax for 12 months July 20, 2020 The UK’s airlines have renewed calls for a 12-month waiver from paying Air Passenger Duty (APD) in a bid to protect the industry from damage from the coronavirus crisis. A new survey from industry body Airlines UK has found that without such a waiver, 600 air routes will be lost in the short-term, as well [...]
Virgin Australia bondholders submit rival buyout bid July 20, 2020 Virgin Australia bondholders have submitted a rival deal to Deloitte to buy the embattled carrier out of administration, a spokesman said today. Last month US investment fund Bain Capital emerged as the victorious bidder for the airline, in a deal worth an undisclosed sum. Although the offer eclipsed proposals offered by Cyrus Capital Partners and [...]
London boroughs spent nearly £1m opposing Heathrow expansion July 17, 2020 A number of London boroughs and Transport for London have spent almost £1m over the last year and a half in challenging plans to expand Heathrow Airport. Between September 2018 and March this year, the boroughs of Hillingdon, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Hammersmith and Fulham, as well as the capital’s transport operator, have spent £944,603 [...]
Britishvolt chooses Welsh site for UK’s first battery ‘gigafactory’ July 17, 2020 Battery firm Britishvolt has chosen a site in Wales for the development of the UK’s battery manufacturing “gigafactory”, it was announced today. In a statement, the start-up said it had signed an MoU with the Welsh government to work on plans for the 30 gigawatt facility at Bro Tathan in south Wales. The company said [...]
British Airways retires entire fleet of Boeing 747 jumbo jets July 17, 2020 British Airways marked the end of an era today as the world’s largest operator of Boeing 747s said it will retire its entire fleet of jumbo jets with immediate effect due to the coronavirus pandemic. Global travel bans imposed to stem the spread of the virus has put the future of many airline companies in [...]
BMW inks €2bn battery deal with Sweden’s Northvolt July 16, 2020 Auto giant BMW has signed a €2bn(£1.8bn) deal with Swedish energy firm Northvolt to provide battery cells to power its electric vehicles. The Scandinavian company, which was founded by two former Tesla executives, will make the cells using only renewable energy at a new facility in the north of Sweden. In a statement, BMW said [...]
Biffa eyes ‘steady recovery’ as revenues start to come back July 16, 2020 Waste management firm Biffa said it was seeing a “steady recovery” in demand for its services, with revenues last month recovering to 83 per cent of pre-coronavirus levels. In a trading update, the FTSE 250 firm said that its business had performed “slightly” better than expected over the last three months. However, it warned that [...]
Kapten and Free Now launch joint service in bid to topple Uber July 16, 2020 Black cab app Free Now and Kapten have today launched their newly combined service in a bid to topple Uber as the country’s biggest ride-hailing company. The new service, which will be available through a new app under the Free Now brand, will give users access to 35,000 drivers in London alone. It is the [...]
Vauxhall to restart Ellesmere Port production on 17 August July 15, 2020 Vauxhall has this afternoon announced that production will restart at its plant at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire on 17 August. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the PSA-owned firm shuttered the facility, where it builds the Astra model, on 17 March. The announcement came despite reports that the plant would not open again until September at [...]
Tube cleaners accidentally scrub out Banksy coronavirus artwork July 15, 2020 Artwork worth potentially hundreds of thousands pounds by street artist Banksy was removed from a London Tube carriage accidentally, after cleaners had no idea about the value of the works. Transport for London (TfL) removed the artwork, after the world-renowned artist painted a series of his trademark rats posing with face masks, due to TfL’s [...]