Aviation

Bloomberg Airbus SE will furlough around 3,000 staff across three French sites just as employees at its UK wing plants prepare to return to work following extended Easter shutdowns tied to the coronavirus outbreak. The staff at commercial aircraft sites in Toulouse, Nantes and Saint-Nazaire were expected to be on leave from Monday until mid-May following an accord with unions, ...

Bloomberg British billionaire Richard Branson said his airlines in the UK and Australia won’t survive the coronavirus crisis without state support, and that his Virgin Group lacks the resources to see them through the pandemic. Branson said on Monday he’s doing everything possible to keep Crawley, England-based Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd going, but that it needs a UK-backed loan to ...

Bloomberg China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co cancelled an order for 29 Boeing Co 737 Max planes, worth at least $2.9 billion based on list prices, joining a growing list of customers scaling back plans for buying the grounded jet. The move cuts the company’s outstanding Max order to 70, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co faces a quandary as it reopens its Seattle-area factories: how to keep its employees safe while minimising the use of protective gear that’s desperately needed for medical workers. The planemaker plans to limit scarce N95 masks for plant workers, relying mainly on cloth face coverings. In an April 9 letter to Washington state officials, Boeing cited new ...

Bloomberg India’s Aviation Ministry has asked airlines to take travel bookings only after a final decision on lifting or easing restrictions on domestic and international flights is announced. “The Ministry of Civil Aviation clarifies that so far no decision has been taken to open domestic or international operations,” Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet. It wasn’t immediately clear ...

Bloomberg With Covid-19 grounding flights, emptying hotel rooms, and turning popular destinations into ghost towns, this might seem the most futile time to think about frequent flyer miles and loyalty points. In mid-March, the US State Department issued a “do not travel” alert for the entire world. Travel is the last thing on most people’s minds, according to a survey ...

Bloomberg Struggling passenger airlines can turn planes into cargo-only aircraft provided they take steps to prevent fires and keep weight balanced, US aviation regulators said in new guidance. With passenger demand plunging to nearly zero, some airlines have begun carrying more cargo to provide revenue. The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) guidance will allow them to carry it in what had ...

Bloomberg South African Airways (SAA) plans to lay off its entire 4,700-strong workforce after failing to persuade the government to provide more financial help, a move that threatens to ground the 86-year-old national carrier for good. The state-owned airline has offered severance deals to all staff from the end of this month after administrators concluded that a successful turnaround is ...

Bloomberg Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd has been offered a A$200 million ($127 million) lifeline from the Queensland government less than 24 hours after Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister all but ruled out nationalising the embattled carrier. The funding is conditional on the Federal government coordinating a response involving all states and territories. Under the proposal the company would remain headquartered in ...

Bloomberg General Electric Co’s aircraft-leasing division scrapped orders for the 737 Max worth at least $6.9 billion based on list prices, dealing another blow to Boeing Co as it grapples with a plunge in jetliner demand because of the coronavirus pandemic. The cancellation of 69 undelivered jets stems from an agreement with Boeing to “rebalance” the order book, GE Capital ...