Aviation

BLOOMBERG Ryanair Holdings Plc notched up another court victory in its fight against Covid-19 bailouts to rivals, this time winning its challenge to a €130 million ($140 million) subsidy for Italian carriers affected by the pandemic. The EU’s General Court annulled the European Commission’s 2020 decision to clear the Italian aid package under the bloc’s state-aid rules, saying regulators failed ...

BLOOMBERG An incident involving three Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd cabin crew making “inappropriate comments” about customers on a recent flight has set back the airline’s recovery and caused significant damage to its image, as well as Hong Kong’s, the carrier’s chief executive officer told employees. Ronald Lam, who became CEO at the start of the year, was referring to a ...

BLOOMBERG  EasyJet Plc is benefiting from higher ticket prices heading into the peak summer season as the low-cost carrier sets plans to capture a bigger share of the post-pandemic rebound in air travel. Revenue per seat, which includes extras such as baggage fees, is running 20% above year-earlier levels, the UK airline said as it reported better-than-expected first-half results. Leisure ...

BLOOMBERG  Singapore Airlines Ltd will pay staff a bonus of around eight months’ salary after posting a record annual profit. Eligible staff will be paid a profit-sharing bonus equivalent to 6.65 months’ pay, and a maximum of 1.5 months’ salary of ex-gratia bonus in recognition of their hard work and sacrifices during the pandemic, a spokesperson for the airline said. ...

BLOOMBERG  IndiGo reported fourth-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates, as rising fuel costs offset the post-Covid travel rebound at India’s largest airline. Net income at parent company InterGlobe Aviation Ltd was 9.16 billion rupees ($111 million) in the period ended in March, short of the 16.2 billion rupees expected by analysts. Revenue from operations surged 77% to 141.6 billion rupees ...

BLOOMBERG  WestJet Airlines Inc, Canada’s second-largest carrier, has begun parking most of its Boeing 737 and 787 jets as it prepares for a possible strike by pilots. The move comes ahead of what is normally a busy holiday long weekend for travel in Canada. Although talks are continuing, the Calgary-based carrier has been unable to reach an agreement with pilots ...

BLOOMBERG TUI AG’s summer bookings are approaching pre-pandemic levels, the latest sign that the travel sector is recovering despite high inflation squeezing household budgets. The world’s biggest tour operator said booking volumes were at 96% of 2019 levels, led by demand for travel to Spain, Greece and Turkey. Prices are 26% higher than pre-pandemic levels, the company said. The stock ...

BLOOMBERG Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd is close to paying A$730 million ($494 million) to its private equity owner Bain Capital, months before a possible listing in Sydney, according to a person familiar with the matter. The planned capital return is almost exactly the same size as the amount that Bain paid for Virgin Australia’s equity in 2020, said the ...

BLOOMBERG A European Union (EU) court toppled Germany’s massive bailout of Deutsche Lufthansa AG at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, backing Ryanair Holdings Plc’s claims that the package unfairly tilted competition towards its rival. Terms of a €6 billion-euro ($6.6 billion) recapitalisation approved by the European Commission were too favourable to Lufthansa, and demands that Europe’s biggest network carrier ...

BLOOMBERG IAG SA raised its full-year earnings outlook after reporting a surprise profit in the typically weak first quarter, highlighting how the airline industry has rapidly bounced back from the depths of the pandemic slump. The parent company of British Airways and Iberia now expects operating profit to exceed the upper end of its previous guidance, which called for a ...