April, 2022

• 29 April

  Putin’s gas plan gives Germany bad choices

    In 2018, German government officials war-gamed a massive natural-gas shortage. With the real thing looming, the lessons are sobering. Some hospitals, nursing homes and jails were forced to close; companies shut; livestock was left to die; hundreds of thousands of jobs vanished; rationing for households was imposed, according to the official account of the crisis-management exercise. In just a ...

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• 29 April

  Pop in business travel to help fuel 2022 profit: Southwest

  

    Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co expects a rebound in domestic travel to carry into the summer, joining rivals predicting that consumers will shrug off worries about coronavirus variants, fork over higher fares and fill planes in the coming months. Southwest maintained a plan to restore 93% of its pre-pandemic flight capacity this quarter as robust leisure demand is joined by ...

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• 29 April

  Wizz Air extends halt to Ukraine, Russia flights

  

    Bloomberg Wizz Air Holdings Plc extended its cancellation of flights to Ukraine and Russia through the end of October as the war started by Vladimir Putin in February shows no sign of abating. The move means Eastern Europe’s biggest discount carrier will have scrapped operations to the two countries for the whole of the summer timetable, which this year ...

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• 29 April

  In sanctions hitch, EasyJet exits leases on Russia-owned jets

  

  Bloomberg EasyJet Plc terminated rental contracts on six Airbus SE jets owned by a Russian state leasing company in a rare example of sanctions depriving a European carrier of aircraft. EasyJet cancelled the leases on the A319 narrowbodies owned by a unit of state-controlled GTLK shortly after the UK and European Union acted to punish Vladimir Putin over the invasion ...

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• 29 April

  Amazon’s Covid-era buildout proves too much as demand cools

  

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc acknowledged that a hiring and warehouse-building binge during the pandemic is catching up with the company as e-commerce sales growth inevitably slows from the torrid pace of the outbreak. That reality will weigh on revenue and profit going forward as consumers return to their pre-pandemic habits and inflation may cool their spending. Fuel and labour costs are ...

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• 29 April

  Russia may need half its planes for spare parts

    Bloomberg Russia may be forced to ground between half and two-thirds of its commercial aircraft by 2025 in order to cannibalise them for spare parts, Kommersant newspaper reported, citing an unidentified person at the Transport Ministry. In the ministry’s base case, at least 70% of the country’s foreign-made planes will still be flying by the end of 2025, Kommersant ...

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• 29 April

  China faces bleak holidays over ‘Covid zero’

    Bloomberg Chinese holidaymakers face another holiday season ruined by virus outbreaks and controls, with the government’s stringent Covid Zero restrictions and fears of infection expected to keep many people at home during the upcoming Labor Day break. Travel was already down in March, when the biggest Covid-19 outbreak in two years prompted officials to lock down major cities like ...

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• 29 April

  Alarmed by Russia’s invasion, Europe rethinks its China ties

  

  Bloomberg Russia’s war on Ukraine has triggered a profound reassessment in European capitals of their individual and collective relations with China. Confronted by the need to rapidly unwind a dependence on Russian energy built up over decades, government officials from Rome to Prague are re-evaluating the extent of their economic and political ties to China. Senior lawmakers in Berlin who ...

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• 29 April

  Presidents of Ukraine, Russia accept G-20 invite from Indonesia

  

  Bloomberg The presidents of Russia and Ukraine have accepted invitations from Indonesia, the current chair of the Group of 20, for a big ticket summit in November. The decision to invite both leaders shows the delicate balance the Southeast Asian country is trying to make as the G-20 host this year. Russia is a member of the G-20, and the ...

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• 29 April

  Sri Lanka leaders signal PM may quit as inflation surges to 30%

  

  Bloomberg Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is willing to drop his brother as prime minister, according to a top leader, as a fresh surge in inflation threatens to renew calls for the family to resign. Rajapaksa has agreed to form an all-party government with a new PM, local media reported citing Maithripala Sirisena, a former president who was part of ...

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