Aviation

Bloomberg Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc shareholders backed a 2 billion-pound ($2.6 billion) equity raise, a key step towards shoring up the British engine maker’s finances to outlast the Covid-19 pandemic. Investors voted 99.5% in favour of the rights issue, according to a statement. Their support means Rolls-Royce can access a further 3 billion pounds of funds, through a bond sale and ...

Bloomberg EasyJet Plc sold more jets to aircraft lessors, raising almost $400 million to pad its finances against a surge in Covid-19 cases that’s pushed a travel recovery into next year. The UK discount airline said it sold nine Airbus SE A320 jets in two transactions, and will lease the planes back for almost 10 years, according to a statement. ...

Bloomberg SpiceJet Ltd is starting a seaplane service connecting the city of Ahmedabad with Kevadia, site of the world’s tallest statue — a 182-metre tribute to the country’s first home minister, Vallabhbhai Patel. Flights will start this Saturday, the 145th anniversary of Patel’s birth, from Sabarmati riverfront to near the so-called Statue of Unity. Fares for the 30-minute trip on ...

Bloomberg Many European airports will struggle to stave off insolvency without state help unless travel recovers from its pandemic slump by the end of the year, according to the continent’s main industry group. Airports Council International Europe predicts that 193 out of 740 airports in the region will soon struggle to pay their bills while government-imposed quarantine requirements remain in ...

Bloomberg ANA Holdings’s plan to launch a new low-cost carrier has doubters, given the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on airlines worldwide and an industry trend towards retrenching. The company said it will launch a new budget brand around fiscal year 2022, targeting medium-distance flights to Southeast Asia and Oceania. That coincided with the carrier unveiling a restructuring plan involving cost reductions ...

Bloomberg ANA Holdings Inc forecast its biggest-ever operating loss of 505 billion yen ($4.8 billion) for the fiscal year through March 2021, the latest airline to face an existential threat to its business due to the pandemic. The Japanese carrier unveiled a restructuring plan that calls for: A newly branded low-cost carrier in addition to Peach, the budget airline already ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG told staff that winter schedule cutbacks will cause it to bench an additional 125 aircraft and temporarily close large parts of its administrative operations. The reduction will cut the carrier’s active fleet back to the level it operated in the 1970s, with the impact filtering through its operations, it said in a letter to employees seen ...

Bloomberg The resurgent Covid-19 pandemic is pushing back the recovery in air travel, turning winter into a survival test for carriers now pinning hopes on a spring rebound. Airlines are urging governments to introduce more testing and travel bubbles to help spur demand. The industry is on track to burn through an estimated $77 billion in cash the second half. ...

Bloomberg French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari isn’t shying away from a possible temporary nationalisation of airlines hit by the travel slowdown caused by the coronavirus epidemic. Nationalising airlines is “a technical option, temporarily, but you need a project, a strategy,” Djebbari said on Europe 1 radio. “Nationalising a company, entering the company’s capital, it’s a short-term solution.” France and the ...

Bloomberg Airbus SE is preparing to ramp up output next year of its most important jet, the A320neo, in a sign of growing confidence on the part of the European planemaker that jetliner demand is poised to recover. While no decision has been made, suppliers have been told to be ready to support a monthly rate of 47 A320neo-family planes ...