Aviation

BLOOMBERG Richard Branson was long a force to be reckoned with in the booming private space business. The British serial entrepreneur beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos to the first cosmic tourist trip with his Virgin Galactic venture. Branson’s second space foray, Virgin Orbit, strapped rockets under the wing of a jumbo jet to launch satellites on their flight path, complete ...

BLOOMBERG Ocado Group Plc said sales rose in the first quarter as new customers signed up to its online grocery business with Marks & Spencer Group Plc amid a rising cost-of-living crisis. Sales rose 3% on the year before and customers rose by nearly 14% during the period. Ocado expects to build on this momentum to return to sales growth ...

BLOOMBERG China Southern Airlines Co Ltd, the country’s largest airline by fleet size, expects to take delivery of more than 200 Boeing Co and Airbus SE single-aisle jets over three years. The Guangzhou-based carrier’s aircraft delivery and disposal plan revealed an addition of 103 Boeing 737 aircraft over the period. The report also showed that 111 Airbus A320 series jets ...

DUBAI / WAM United Airlines has launched a new nonstop daily service between its New York/Newark hub and Dubai International (DXB). United is the only US airline to offer non-stop flights between Dubai and the United States, flying to more destinations in the Middle East than any other US airline. The new service marks United’s return to Dubai, which the ...

BLOOMBERG Germany’s air and rail services ground to a halt during a one-day strike as workers join peers in France and the UK to fight for higher pay. The walkout also affects some ports, with the Verdi and EVG transport and railway unions coming together in a strike that resulted in severe disruption to travel. Verdi is demanding a raise ...

BLOOMBERG For decades, Anil Agarwal cultivated a reputation as one of India’s great survivors. Starting as a scrap metal dealer, the billionaire magnate built a mining conglomerate to rival any other, weathering cash crunches, government friction and disputes with Indigenous people over expansion plans. But in recent months, Agarwal has faced one of his toughest acts yet. The tycoon’s Vedanta ...

BLOOMBERG Cathay Pacific Airways is in talks with aircraft lessors as it seeks to source as many as 50 of Airbus SE’s A320neo-type aircraft, people familiar with the discussions said, with Hong Kong’s main carrier aiming to ramp up and potentially expand following the scrapping of Covid curbs. Given Airbus’s order book that stretches out several years, Cathay and its ...

BLOOMBERG When Eric Martel returned to Bombardier Inc in the spring of 2020, the company was hardly recognisable from the one he’d left five years earlier. Bombardier had just sold its two biggest divisions, which built commercial jets and trains, in a desperate, sell-anything-you-can effort to raise money. A new viral disease called Covid-19 was ripping around the globe, forcing ...

BLOOMBERG Boeing Co secured a win in Japan with an order from the nation’s flag carrier for 21 of its 737 Max aircraft, getting in ahead of rival Airbus SE, which was initially seen as the frontrunner. The single-aisle jets will be delivered to Japan Airlines Co and flying from 2026, the carrier and Boeing said in a joint statement. ...

BLOOMBERG Airlines should financially reward managers who hire more women, said the International Aviation Womens Association (IAWA), after industry data showed almost zero progress towards gender parity in the past four years. Women typically hold just 13% of executive posts at carriers, even fewer than in financial services firms, Bloomberg analysis showed last month. The proportion of female pilots, technicians ...