Aviation

Bloomberg United Airlines Holdings Inc predicted that sales will rebound next summer as vaccines take hold, even as the company echoed rivals in warning that surging coronavirus cases have caused near-term demand to weaken over the past month. Bookings for the third quarter of 2021, the heart of the airline industry’s peak season, will only be 40% below pre-pandemic levels, ...

Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co expects depressed travel amid the nationwide surge in coronavirus cases and typically weak seasonal demand to combine for a difficult start to 2021 for the industry. “January and February are bound to be really rough months — winter time, high case loads — and they are seasonally soft anyway,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said in ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s biggest airline plans to use proceeds from a $173 million stock sale to pounce on struggling rivals as it rebounds from an unprecedented travel collapse. Volaris is restoring seating capacity this month to 100% of last year’s levels and targeting a return to profitability by the second quarter of 2021, said Chief Executive Officer Enrique Beltranena. The carrier ...

Bloomberg General Electric Co poured $4 billion into repairing its balance sheet, furthering steps to whittle down a pension liability that has been a thorn in Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp’s turnaround efforts. The manufacturer prefunded about $2.5 billion in pension requirements for the next three years and repaid $1.5 billion of an intracompany loan to GE Capital, according to ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co lost almost half of a 737 Max aircraft order from Bain Capital’s Virgin Australia under a new agreement that also postpones the initial jet delivery by two years to mid-2023. Virgin Australia will take 25 of Boeing’s Max 10 jets to serve as the “backbone” of future domestic and short-haul international flights, Jayne Hrdlicka, the budget carrier’s ...

Bloomberg South Africa faces a fresh battle with labour groups in its effort to revive the bankrupt state airline, offering three months of wages to employees who haven’t been paid since March. The government’s Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa were scheduled to discuss the matter, according to a spokeswoman for the ...

Bloomberg Americans are expected to continue with their travel plans for the Christmas holiday with more than a million air passengers per day anticipated for several days during the holiday period, David Pekoske, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said during an aviation event. Americans plan to travel despite Center for Disease Control advice to stay at home and ...

Bloomberg American Airlines Group is expanding pre-flight coronavirus testing in an effort to boost demand for domestic travel. At-home tests would enable passengers with negative results to avoid or shorten Covid-19 quarantines and other restrictions at US destinations with travel requirements, American said in a statement. Starting from December 9, customers started having access to tests provided by LetsGetChecked for ...

Bloomberg Ratan Tata is no stranger to flying. As a 17-year-old, the patriarch of India’s biggest conglomerate once landed a plane that had lost its sole engine mid-flight. He’s also piloted the supersonic F-16 fighter jet. That love of aviation hasn’t always translated into business success, however. Tata Group’s two airlines — AirAsia India and Vistara — were struggling before ...

Bloomberg Bankrupt carrier Jet Airways India Ltd, once the nation’s biggest airline by market value, is planning to restart operations as a full-service carrier by the summer of 2021, its new owners announced. A consortium led by Dubai-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital has set a revival plan for Jet Airways, which includes a dedicated freighter service and ...