December, 2020

• 24 December

  Why US airlines outrank restaurants in relief money

  

  Does the airline industry have a rubber room? That was the name given to the place where teachers that New York City wanted to fire gathered each day; they collected a paycheck for doing absolutely nothing. The airlines are set to collect $15 billion as part of the new $900 billion Covid-19 relief package. The money is being described as ...

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• 24 December

  Who will get Covid vaccine shot first!

  

  Deciding who gets the Covid-19 vaccine — and who has to wait — will be no easy task. Essentially, authorities around the world are building myriad algorithms to assess who is important, who is most at risk, and how to balance those considerations. I have one piece of advice: Be as transparent as possible, to keep the discussion about priorities ...

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• 24 December

  SoftBank Son puts new spin on SPAC mania

  It seems like everyone’s launching a special purpose acquisition company these days, but you could have bet on Softbank Group Corp maestro Masayoshi Son and his lieutenant Rajeev Misra finding a way of putting an eyebrow-raising spin on the blank-check phenomenon. They haven’t disappointed. Their SPAC, SVF Investment Corp, plans to raise at least $525 million from investors in an ...

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• 24 December

  US’s celebrated energy bill is underwhelming

  The energy bill attached to the relief package passed by Congress is winning plaudits for its bipartisanship and climate-friendly measures. Not to be a Grinch this close to Friday. The energy bill now on its way to outgoing President Donald Trump’s desk contains many items addressing emissions and climate change. Among other things, there is a commitment to phase out ...

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• 24 December

  Boeing extends 737 Max sales streak as Alaska boosts order

  

  Bloomberg Boeing Co extended its sales streak of 737 Max jets as Alaska Air Group Inc boosted an order agreement to 68 jets and announced plans to return to a mainline fleet with a single aircraft type. The airline will stop flying 20 of its Airbus SE A320-family planes immediately, prompting a one-time charge of as much as $250 million ...

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• 24 December

  Airbus may lose $5bn in orders on AirAsia X plan

  

  Bloomberg European planemaker Airbus SE believes it may lose more than $5 billion of aircraft orders under struggling airline AirAsia X Bhd’s restructuring plans, according to court documents filed in Malaysia last week. Airbus Asia Pacific President Anand Stanley said in the court filing there’s a “strong possibility that Airbus will suffer substantial losses and prejudice” under the proposed restructuring ...

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• 24 December

  IndiGo may rehire staff as it’s on recovery from aviation ‘carnage’

  

  Bloomberg IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, could start slowly rehiring staff in three months as capacity rebuilds from “the background of carnage” caused by Covid-19, with domestic services likely to return to pre-pandemic levels by January or February, Chief Executive Officer Ronojoy Dutta said. “Doom and gloom is off the table and we are recovering pretty nicely, especially domestically,” Dutta said ...

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• 24 December

  Philippines suspends flights from UK

  Bloomberg The Philippines suspended all flights from UK from December 24 to Decemebr 31 to prevent the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus, according to a resolution issued by the government’s task force handling the pandemic. The country will also bar travellers who have been in the UK in the 14 days prior to arrival in the Philippines, ...

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• 24 December

  Amazon delays hike in fees it charges merchants until June

  

  Bloomberg Amazon.com says it will delay raising fees it charges independent sellers to store and ship items until June, a gesture to merchants who have sometimes bristled at the rising costs of doing business with the company. In a blog post to sellers, Jeff Wilke, the outgoing chief executive officer of Amazon’s retail unit, noted that other logistics companies have ...

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• 24 December

  Russia sees nothing good in ties from ‘hostile’ US under Biden

  

  Bloomberg Russia expects nothing good in relations with a “deeply hostile” US under the incoming administration of Joe Biden and has no plans to make unilateral concessions to improve ties, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “We are heading from bad to worse,” Ryabkov said in an interview with the Interfax news service published on Wednesday, which he later confirmed ...

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