Budget 2020: Sunak confirms £600bn in capital investment for UK transport and industry March 11, 2020 The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has pledged £600bn in investment over the next five years for infrastructure and industry in today’s Budget. The announcement will mean that public investment will hit its highest levels since 1955, and will see capital budgets rise over £110m in 2024 and 2025. Part of the deal will [...]
Cathay Pacific predicts substantial loss due to ‘unprecedented’ coronavirus hit March 11, 2020 Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific has said that the “unprecedented challenge” of coronavirus will see it suffer a substantial loss this year after the outbreak forced it to ground over half its fleet. The airline has been one of the carriers which has been worst affected by the outbreak, which came on the back [...]
First Group begins sale of North American businesses after investor pressure March 11, 2020 Bus operator First Group has today announced that it will sell its North American businesses after a long-running campaign by prominent investors finally paid off. Coast Capital, an activist hedge fund with a 10 per cent stake in the firm, as well as British-Iranian property tycoon Robbie Tchenguiz, have been pressuring First Group to divest [...]
Heathrow Airport passenger numbers sink in February as coronavirus hits demand March 11, 2020 Passenger numbers at Heathrow Airport declined nearly five per cent year-on-year in February as a lack of demand due to the coronavirus outbreak began to take its toll on the transport hub’s footfall. The monthly fall to 5.4m passengers was largely down to a falling demand on Asian and European routes, which have been the [...]
Hybrids and holidays: McLaren set for race against time March 11, 2020 McLaren boss Mike Flewitt could be forgiven for being more than a little fed up with surprise announcements. It’s no easy feat to completely reconfigure the launch of your latest supercar when Europe’s flagship motor show is cancelled with barely three days before the curtain comes up, but that’s what McLaren was forced to do [...]
HS2 boss says only building line to Crewe ‘doesn’t do justice to the business case’ March 10, 2020 The boss of controversial rail project HS2 has said that only building the line to Crewe “doesn’t do justice to the business case” after doubts emerged over whether the proposed eastern route to Leeds would be built. In a speech last month Andrew Stephenson, the new minister responsible for the project, made no mention of [...]
EU suspends landing slots rule in bid to ease burden on beleaguered airlines March 10, 2020 The EU has dropped a rule meaning that airlines must run the majority of their scheduled services or risk losing profitable landing slots in a bid to give the industry some relief amid the coronavirus outbreak. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said that the bloc would temporarily do away with [...]
Norwegian shares plunge 12 per cent as airline cancels 3,000 flights March 10, 2020 Shares in low-cost carrier Norwegian plunged 12 per cent today after the airline said it would cancel around 3,000 flights between now and mid-June to tackle the slump in demand caused by coronavirus. The cancellations, which extend existing measures, represent approximately 15 per cent of the carrier’s total capacity for the period. They are part [...]
Peugeot’s Ellesmere Port factory to go down to four-day week March 10, 2020 Peugeot’s car factory at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire will go down to a four-day working week later this month as the manufacturer looks to save costs due to the stalling European car market. Last year the plant built around 62,000 Vauxhall and Opel Astra models last year, but there is doubt over the long-term future [...]
Covid-19: Qantas to cut international capacity by 25 per cent due to fall in passenger demand March 10, 2020 Australian airline Qantas will cut its global capacity by a quarter over the next six months as part of a package of measures to deal with the plunge in passenger demand caused by coronavirus. In addition, Australia’s largest airline has delayed an order for 12 Airbus A350-1000 planes while the outbreak continues. Qantas will also [...]
