Bloomberg British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd aren’t offering refunds to passengers who cancel year-end trips because of new UK coronavirus rules, even as regulators investigate airlines’ earlier refusal to hand cash back to customers caught in lockdown. IAG SA-owned BA will grant ticket holders a voucher or let them switch to a later date, it said in an …

Bloomberg Celebrating the holidays might be pretty ho-hum, but one area that’s booming is toys. After a terrible year of remote school, cancelled birthday parties and little vacationing, parents and grandparents ridden with so-called “Covid guilt” are spending a lot more on puzzles, crafts and games. And this is setting up the US industry for its best Christmas in years—and …

Bloomberg The rollout of vaccines against Covid-19 has intensified debate about whether they should be made mandatory, with the head of a major tourism lobby saying that doing so would cause irreparable harm to the struggling sector. “I don’t think governments will require vaccination next year” for travel, Gloria Guevara, head of the World Travel and Tourism Council, said at …

Bloomberg Canadian transportation authorities validated changes to Boeing Co’s 737 Max ordered by US regulators, putting the jetliner a step closer to flying again in the northern nation. In a statement, Transport Canada said it has completed its review of design fixes mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration in November — calling it “an important first step” towards re-certification. The …

Bloomberg Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd carried just 37,815 passengers in November, down 98.6% from a year earlier, and warned that its second-half losses will be significantly worse than the HK$9.9 billion ($1.3 billion) hemorrhage in the first six months. Average passenger capacity in the second half is only likely to be 8.4% of pre-pandemic levels, compared with 34.3% in the …

Bloomberg Foreign investors may at last be returning to Japan’s stock market after a six-year selloff, amid the growing realisation of an opportunity that no other place can provide, a top fund manager says. Comgest Asset Management Japan Ltd. expects Japan’s profit growth to outpace that of the US, as corporate taxes will “almost certainly” rise under President Joe Biden. …

Bloomberg Saudi stocks rallied on Sunday, putting them on track to be the Middle East’s best performers in 2020, a day after the Opec+ group pledged a more hands-on approach to the oil market. Equities in Dubai were among the region’s best performers amid optimism over a rebound in tourism. The main index in Riyadh gained 0.3% as of 10:20 …

Bloomberg Oil rose for a seventh straight week as efforts to pass another US virus relief package added to optimism that the vaccine’s rollout will provide a long-awaited boost to demand. Futures rose 1.5% in New York, extending this week’s rally to over 5%. Talks on a relief package have made some headway, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying …

Bloomberg Japan will aim to more than quadruple offshore wind generation capacity in the decade to 2040 under plans to meet its mid-century emissions reduction target. The government will seek to lift offshore wind capacity to as much as 45 gigawatts in 2040 from 10 gigawatts in 2030, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement. Reaching …

Bloomberg Australia is studying plans to transform a disused underground coal mine into a pumped hydro facility, part of a wider effort to reuse retiring fossil fuel sites for renewable energy generation. The A$13 million ($9.9 million) pilot trial at the Newstan Colliery, in Fassifern, about 140 kilometres (87 miles) northeast of Sydney, could offer a blueprint for dozens of …