Aviation

Bloomberg Troubled flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia put off the payment on its Islamic debt once again, highlighting its financing crunch as the firm tries to avoid bankruptcy. The Southeast Asian airline, struggling as the pandemic depresses air travel worldwide, said it “will continue to defer the periodic distribution amount due on June 3, 2023,” in a filing to the ...

Bloomberg Thai Airways International Pcl is seeking new loans to help fund operations after the court approved its plan to restructure at least $5.5 billion of debt. The carrier has been in talks with some banks for loans of as much as 25 billion baht as part of the debt-rehabilitation program, Chief Financial Officer Chai Eamsiri said. The Central Bankruptcy ...

Bloomberg Vertical Aerospace Group Ltd, the developer of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, won pre-order contracts of as much as $4 billion as it plans to go public through a merger with a blank-check company. American Airlines Group Inc, Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd and aircraft lessor Avolon Holdings Ltd agreed to buy as many as 1,000 of the vertical ...

Bloomberg Daily US air travellers exceeded 2 million for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, reaching almost three-quarters of the volume recorded on the same day in 2019, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The total is part of a trend towards improving numbers since February, when vaccinations against the virus began to have an appreciable effect ...

Bloomberg KKR & Co has acquired an almost $800 million loan portfolio from CIT Group Inc as it seeks to expand its footprint in the aviation sector. The deal is part of the global investment firm’s launch of a new commercial aviation lending platform, AV AirFinance Limited, which will provide secured financing to airlines, lessors, manufacturers and investors. The purchase ...

Bloomberg Switzerland plans to reopen its borders for overseas visitors who have received a Covid-19 vaccine on June 28, joining other European countries easing entry rules imposed during the pandemic. Along with European Union countries, Switzerland has restricted travel from outside of Europe’s Schengen area as a result of the pandemic. With its vaccine drive accelerating and Covid-19 infections falling, ...

Bloomberg Europe’s biggest airlines are seeking to deflect moves to tighten carbon curbs by favouring a less robust offsetting program, according to climate watchdog InfluenceMap. Carriers are pushing to retain the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation over the European Union’s more rigorous Emissions Trading System, the think tank-said. While Corsia was developed by the United Nations-mandated International ...

Bloomberg The aircraft that broke down the door to intercontinental flying for the masses has a new mission: lugging as many German tourists as possible on the short-haul hop to Mallorca. Deutsche Lufthansa AG will deploy 364-seat Boeing Co 747-8s on two-hour trips from Frankfurt after looser coronavirus curbs spurred bookings 25-fold since April, it said. The jet will ply ...

Bloomberg South Africa agreed to sell a majority stake in the country’s grounded national carrier to a local jet-leasing company and private-equity firm, ridding the government of an entity that has long been a drain on state finances. A consortium comprised of Johannesburg-based Global Airways, which owns recently launched domestic airline Lift, and private-equity firm Harith General Partners will take ...

Bloomberg Reopening more international travel routes from the UK will be “challenging” because the country must do everything it can to protect itself from new coronavirus variants, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. Britain last week tightened restrictions on overseas travel, removing Portugal from its so-called green list in a major blow to the airline industry. Restoring travel in the medium-term ...