Earlier this year, Olaf Scholz, the former finance minister being sworn in as German chancellor, was sitting in on one of many coronavirus crisis meetings. He was looking inscrutable as he often does, which can come across as smug. He could have been thinking about anything, but a Bavarian colleague reprimanded him for “grinning like a Smurf.” By something close ...

Bloomberg Rapid and still-evolving border restrictions in response to the omicron variant have submerged air-travel demand yet again, throwing a long-awaited recovery into uncertainty. The emerging coronavirus wave has put airlines under even more pressure as they navigate rules that vary by country and are being revised daily as more information about the strain comes to light. Carriers slashed 151,000 ...

Bloomberg HNA Group Co has officially handed over control of its core airline operations to Liaoning Fangda Group Industrial Co, marking the end of an era for the Chinese conglomerate as it continues to restructure one of the country’s biggest piles of corporate debt. Gu Gang, head of a government taskforce in charge of HNA’s restructuring, will no longer serve ...