Aviation

Bloomberg Vietnam Airlines will temporarily suspend all of its South Korea flights beginning March 5 over concerns about the novel coronavirus outbreak, the national carrier said in a statement posted on its website. As of March 1, Vietnam Airlines flights from South Korea to Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport and Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City ...

Bloomberg US regulators have told Boeing Co that pilots may require additional training to properly respond to emergencies on the 737 Max after airline crews failed to perform proper procedures in simulator tests. In a February 19 letter to Boeing reviewed by Bloomberg News, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) detailed multiple missteps that airline crews had made in the December ...

Bloomberg London Heathrow’s expansion plans face further delays after environmental activists won an appeal over a third runway that Europe’s busiest airport says it needs to boost flights and compete with rival hubs. Appeal court judges overturned a decision from May in favour of the project, saying the UK government failed to take full account of international agreements on climate ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG will significantly curtail flights and ground more planes in a new sign of the coronavirus’s escalating toll on travel. The German flag carrier will cut as much as a quarter of its short- and medium-haul flights across all brands in the coming weeks. The number of grounded aircraft for long-haul services will rise to 23 from ...

Bloomberg Growing fear over coronavirus is battering commercial airline stocks, but private jet operators are seeing a spike in demand as well-heeled travellers look to minimise their public exposure and find alternatives to suspended flights. “There’s undoubtedly been a rise in demand for short-notice, on-demand charter,” said Adam Twidell, chief executive officer of jet charter provider PrivateFly. “We’ve had a ...

Bloomberg South Africa almost doubled the level of funding for the national airline to 16.4 billion rand ($1.1 billion), cash that will go towards supporting a restructuring plan for the technically insolvent carrier. The bailout will be used to service and pay debt previously guaranteed by the state over the “medium term,” finance minister Tito Mboweni said in his budget ...

Bloomberg Airlines are turning to the world’s hardest-hitting disinfectants to rid planes of the coronavirus. Qantas Airways Ltd, Korean Air Lines Co and Singapore Airlines Ltd’s Scoot unit are among carriers that helped evacuate people from the outbreak’s epicenter, the Chinese city of Wuhan, and from a cruise ship off Japan. They’ve stepped up aircraft-cleaning efforts as a result, trying ...

Bloomberg British Airways (BA) became the first major carrier to cut services to Italy following the spread of the coronavirus there, saying it will eliminate 22 round-trip flights to Milan through March 11. BA said that it took the decision following a reduction in demand for travel to the city in the Lombardy region, where the Italian outbreak is concentrated. ...

Bloomberg More than 25,000 Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd staff are taking unpaid leave, underscoring the depth of the airline’s troubles as it contends with the coronavirus. Chief Executive Officer Augustus Tang said in an internal memo that Cathay’s challenges “remain acute,” and he thanked employees for their support. The Hong Kong-based airline this month asked its 33,000 workers to take ...

Bloomberg The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is recommending another safety fix for Boeing Co’s grounded 737 Max jet, adding a new hurdle as the US planemaker pushes to return the grounded plane to service. The proposed order would require inspection and possible replacement of a metallic lining that protects wiring from lightning strikes, the regulator said in the Federal ...