Wizz Air cuts capacity to 50 per cent as quarantine hits demand September 25, 2020 Wizz Air today said it will operate at 50 per cent capacity in October after suffering a slump in demand due to coronavirus quarantine rules. The budget airline said its services will be running at half the normal level next month and would likely remain at the same level throughout the winter if restrictions remained [...]
BoE: Considering the climate would have held back stimulus September 24, 2020 The Bank of England has said it did not attach any climate-related conditions to its major loan scheme as this would have “frustrated” the effort to support companies quickly. However, Bank official Sarah Breeden said that the BoE is “considering” attaching green strings to its future corporate bond purchases. Threadneedle Street has been criticised for [...]
Lufthansa warns of more job cuts as travel recovery stalls September 21, 2020 Lufthansa shares lost nearly a tenth of their value this afternoon after the German flag carrier said that it would cut more jobs on top of the 22,000 redundancies previously announced. This afternoon the airline revealed that due to the stalling recovery in air travel it would have to reduce its fleet by 150 planes, [...]
UK-US travel slump set to cost British economy £11bn September 21, 2020 The government is facing mounting pressure to roll out large scale coronavirus testing at airports after new research showed reduced travel between the UK and US could cost the British economy upwards of £11bn this year. A new report commissioned by Heathrow Airport, Airlines UK, British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) and aviation services [...]
Ryanair slams ‘government mismanagement’ as it cuts capacity again September 18, 2020 Ryanair today launched a fresh attack on the government for its “continuous changes” in travel restrictions as it announced it would cut its October capacity by a further 20 per cent. It follows a 20 per cent capacity cut announced last month, meaning the budget airline now expects its October capacity to fall from 50 [...]
Travel stocks hit turbulence amid UK lockdown fears September 18, 2020 Travel stocks took a fresh beating in early trading this morning amid rising fears that the UK could be set for a new nationwide lockdown. British Airways owner IAG led the FTSE 100 fallers this morning, tumbling more than eight per cent. Budget airline Easyjet was also down almost seven per cent, while rivals Ryanair [...]
Quarantine quagmire – when will UK plc be open for business? September 18, 2020 If ever the term “too many cooks” needed a case study, then you’d need look no further than the government’s quarantine policy for those arriving in the UK. There are no fewer than four government departments which have a say in the policy – the Department for Transport, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and [...]
Shareholders approve Michael O’Leary’s bonus despite revolt September 17, 2020 A third of Ryanair shareholders today revolted against a €458,000 (£417,500) bonus for chief executive Michael O’Leary today at the budget carrier’s annual general meeting. Although the firm’s remuneration report was approved by 65.8 per cent of voters, 34.2 voted against the packages, which had been criticised due to the ongoing financial crisis brought on [...]
Mainland Portugal added to England’s quarantine list September 10, 2020 Portugal has been added to England’s quarantine list after a consistent rise in new cases, transport secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed. From four o’clock on Saturday morning, travellers from mainland Portugal, Hungary, French Polynesia and Reunion will have to self-isolate for 14 days. In a tweet Shapps said: “Data shows we need to remove PORTUGAL [...]
Bring in airport testing by end of the month or risk ‘ruin’, airline bosses warn September 10, 2020 The bosses of the UK’s largest airlines have called on the government to implement an airport testing regime by the end of the month, warning that the country risks “economic ruin” otherwise. In a letter to Boris Johnson, the chief executives of British Airways, Easyjet, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic, and Tui, among other, said that the [...]