London O2 arena to become NHS training ground for staff fighting coronavirus April 9, 2020 AEG has made London’s O2 Arena available to the NHS for the training of additional staff required at the new Nightingale hospital in the Excel centre. The venue’s owner has handed the concert venue over to the NHS until the end of June in order to assist with the growing number of staff required to [...]
Coronavirus: Virgin Australia to ground all but one domestic flight and seeks state aid April 9, 2020 Embattled Virgin Australia has said it will ground all domestic flights except a single daily trip from Sydney to Melbourne due to coronavirus, and is seeking AU$1.4bn (£707m) in government aid. The severely reduced programme will run through to 15 June at the earliest. It is understood that Virgin is seeking the cash in the [...]
Coronavirus: Airbus to cut jet production by a third April 9, 2020 Airbus has announced its largest ever production adjustment in response to the coronavirus pandemic, cutting output of its best-selling A320 narrow-body family by a third to 40 aircraft a month. The global shutdown in flights due to the coronavirus has forced many airlines to postpone or cancel orders of new planes. The French-German aerospace giant [...]
Oil prices: Markets hold their breath ahead of Opec+ meeting April 9, 2020 This afternoon’s crunch meeting between oil cartel Opec and Russia could send shockwaves through global energy markets and send oil prices spiking or crashing. For weeks oil prices have been in freefall due to a production war between de facto Opec leader Saudi Arabia and Russia. The pair are stuck in a dispute over production [...]
UK economy grew just 0.1 per cent before coronavirus lockdown April 9, 2020 The UK economy grew 0.1 per cent in the three months to February before the coronavirus lockdown hit businesses. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed the increase was entirely down to the services sector. The tiny rise, which is measured on a three-month rolling basis, was a slight improvement on the three months [...]
Boris Johnson’s condition is ‘improving’ as he battles coronavirus April 8, 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care in St Thomas’ hospital, but his condition is “improving”, chancellor Rishi Sunak has said. Speaking at this afternoon’s press conference, Sunak added that Johnson has “been sitting up in bed and engaging positively with his clinical team”. The chancellor said that the Prime Minister’s hospitalisation was a [...]
Airlines set to save millions as air traffic control payments deferred April 8, 2020 The UK’s airlines could save tens of millions of pounds a month after European governments took steps to allow them to defer payments for using UK and European airspace for 14 months. The new measures, which were agreed by air traffic body Eurocontrol’s member states, will cover the period between February and May 2020. In [...]
Coronavirus: British Gas to furlough 3,800 staff April 8, 2020 British Gas has become the latest of the UK’s energy suppliers to take advantage of the government’s job retention scheme, furloughing around 3,800 employees as the firm scales back operations due to coronavirus. The UK’s largest household energy supplier, which is owned by services giant Centrica, said furloughed employees will be paid 100 per cent [...]
Coronavirus: Tour operator Tui cancels holidays until mid-May April 8, 2020 The UK’s biggest package holiday firm Tui has extended the cancellation of its holidays for UK customers until mid-May among uncertainty as to when coronavirus travel restrictions will cease to apply. In a statement, the firm said that beach holidays for UK and Irish customers travelling up to and including 14 May would no longer [...]
Lufthansa to close budget carrier Germanwings as coronavirus forces overhaul April 8, 2020 Lufthansa will close its low-cost subsidiary Germanwings as the flag carrier seeks to overhaul its business in response to the coronavirus crisis. The move came as the airline warned that it could take years for the airline industry to get back to pre-coronavirus levels of service. In a statement, Lufthansa said: “It will take months [...]
