Aviation

Colombo / AFP Sri Lanka is seeking foreign assistance to rescue its loss-making national carrier, a minister said, after the government announced the airline was unable to pay back nearly $1 billion in debt. The airline owes at least $933 million but the government last week said the true figure could be much higher. Official sources said Colombo was in ...

Singapore/ Bloomberg China’s three biggest airlines reported soaring net profits in 2015 despite the country’s worst economic growth in a quarter of a century, as more Chinese travelled abroad. Cheaper jet fuel helped the bottom line, but losses from foreign exchange hurt as China’s yuan currency slid against the dollar, they said. “With the slowdown in world economic growth, and ...

SYDNEY / Reuters Air New Zealand (NZ) Ltd, the biggest shareholder of Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd, has on Wednesday announced that it may sell its 26 percent stake in a sign that backers of Australia’s number two carrier are growing impatient with its slow profit turnaround. The move, nine days after Air New Zealand publicly supported Virgin’s request for a ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s government shelved plans to build a new terminal at the main international airport as the East African nation’s tourism industry struggles to recover from attacks by Islamist militants. The decision to halt the project at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) is the result of “prevailing economic and financial dynamics which have been on a downward trend over the ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co. plans to cut about 4,000 jobs from its commercial airplanes division by mid-year as part of a broader effort to reduce costs amid fierce competition from Airbus Group SE. The US planemaker doesn’t plan any involuntary layoffs, for now. Rather, the savings will come from 1,600 workers who elected to leave the company under a voluntary program ...

Bloomberg Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA reported a fourth-quarter loss and predicted business would worsen this year in the face of declining demand and a shrinking Brazilian economy. The net loss was 1.18 billion reais ($324 million), the airline said in a statement after the close of trading in Sao Paulo. Fourth-quarter net revenue totaled 2.65 billion reais against analyst ...

SINGAPORE / Reuters Indonesia is about to roll out its first passenger plane, one of several smaller, homegrown aircraft being studied in Asia, designed especially for short hops across the region’s emerging markets, where air travel is booming. State-owned aerospace firm PT Dirgantara Indonesia’s 19-seat N219, which cost $400 million and took just over five years to make, is scheduled ...

Bloomberg Virgin America Inc. received takeover offers from JetBlue Airways Corp. and Alaska Air Group Inc. after the carrier backed by billionaire Richard Branson put itself up for sale, according to people familiar with the matter. Discussions between Virgin America and the two bidders are ongoing, and a deal could be announced as early as next week, the people said, ...

Bloomberg Brussels Airlines NV, which lost its main airport hub after the worst terrorist attack in Belgium’s history, has decamped to four other cities to maintain service, even using buses to get people to flights at alternative airports. After the bombing, which killed 11 at the airport, the carrier shifted some airplanes and crew to Frankfurt and Zurich, to maintain ...

Bloomberg Skymark Airlines Inc. exited bankruptcy administration and forecast its first operating profit in three years after reducing its fleet, cutting routes and getting new funding. The carrier expects to report 1.5 billion yen ($13 million) in operating profit and sales of 70 billion yen for the year ending March 31, Skymark said in a statement on Monday. Skymark also ...