Aviation

Bloomberg US aviation regulators announced an important milestone in returning Boeing Co’s grounded 737 Max jet to service, an event one person familiar with the process said would happen no earlier than October. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it is preparing to issue formal legal directives for repairs required on the jet, which indicates that the agency is comfortable ...

Bloomberg Airbus SE called for increased UK investment in sustainable aviation to supplement budgets strained by the coronavirus crisis and help safeguard the country’s position as a major player in the industry. Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury, speaking on a panel on Monday for the virtual Farnborough Air Show, said Britain has put advances in decarbonisation and digitisation high on ...

Bloomberg Global airline passenger demand won’t recover to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels until the end of 2023, and only then if effective vaccines and medicines are available, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The recovery for airlines and airports will be largely aligned, followed by aircraft lessors as carriers return fleets to service, Moody’s analysts including Jonathan Root wrote in a report. ...

Bloomberg Colombia is scaling back a planned $2.5 billion expansion of one of Latin America’s busiest airports after the Covid-19 pandemic caused a collapse in air travel. Bogota’s El Dorado airport, the country’s biggest, was set for an upgrade to more than double capacity to about 80 million passengers a year by 2050, from the roughly 35 million it saw ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG is unlikely to take delivery of all 80 of the jets it’s allowed to accept through 2023 under terms of a $10.3 billion government bailout, according to a person familiar with the matter. The German airline will instead prioritise quick repayment of the aid, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters. ...

Bloomberg British Airways, the world’s biggest operator of Boeing Co 747-400s, is retiring its entire fleet of the jumbo jets with immediate effect because of the damage the coronavirus has done to air travel. “It is unlikely our magnificent ‘queen of the skies’ will ever operate commercial services for British Airways again due to the downturn in travel caused by ...

Bloomberg Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has reached agreement with unions on up to 700 UK job cuts this year, with the rest of its planned downsizing made up by employees taking voluntary buyouts. The company announced in June it planned to eliminate 3,000 UK jobs this year. While more than that number applied for voluntary severance, the company will still make ...

Bloomberg Delta Air Lines Inc has proposed cutting the number of hours pilots fly each month by 15% to further reduce labour spending and help avoid involuntary layoffs as surging US coronavirus cases quash travel demand. The proposal offered to the Delta unit of the Air Line Pilots Association would remain in place for a year with hours flexing back ...

Bloomberg Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, fresh from getting a $1.5 billion rescue package, is anticipating a sluggish recovery in air travel that won’t see demand returning to 2019 levels for at least three years. The British carrier founded by Richard Branson is resuming passenger flights next week with trips to Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles. Widespread border restrictions ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, said the government has yet to determine how the rescue of South African Airways (SAA) will be funded. His ministry and the National Treasury said they would mobilise the additional 10 billion rand ($599 million) the bankrupt airline’s administrators said is needed to effect the rescue. In a July 17 Twitter ...