Crossrail employs 140 drivers on £62k more than a year before line is due to open December 4, 2020 Crossrail has employed 140 drivers to operate its trains in central London, even though trial runs will not start until next year. Drivers’ union Aslef confirmed that pay for Crossrail drivers is set at £62,533 per year with a 2 per cent pay rise due to come into place next April. Transport for London (TfL) [...]
Ryanair buys 75 newly cleared Boeing 737 Max planes December 3, 2020 Ryanair has ordered 75 new 737 Max aircraft from Boeing, just weeks after the plane was finally cleared to fly again. The new order means that Ryanair will buy 210 of the planes in total, with a value of over $22bn. Until last month the 737 Max had been grounded for nearly two years after [...]
Goin’ underground: Tube journeys jump a third as lockdown ends December 3, 2020 The number of Tube journeys jumped a third yesterday compared to last week as the national lockdown restrictions were finally lifted. According to data from Transport for London (TfL), there were 2.64m taps in-and-out of Tube stations yesterday, 33 per cent higher than on the same day last week. That’s roughly a third of the [...]
Driving home for Christmas? Government puts road and rail works on ice December 3, 2020 The government will cancel planned roadworks and rail upgrades, and also lay on extra services, to ease people’s journeys over the Christmas period. With a large number of people expected to travel to visit relatives and friends over the holidays, ministers have put in place plans for a special travel window between 23 and 27 [...]
Flybe gearing up for take off as collapsed carrier applies for new licence December 3, 2020 The resurrection of collapsed regional airline Flybe has moved a step nearer after it was revealed that the carrier’s new owner had applied for a UK operating licence. The Telegraph reported that Thyme Opco, a holding company said up by hedge fund Cyrus Capital in October, had applied to the Civil Aviation Authority for the [...]
Norwegian Air plans share sale in bid to survive December 3, 2020 Embattled carrier Norwegian Air today said that it was looking to raise 4bn Norwegian krone (£340m) in order to recapitalise the struggling firm. In a statement to Oslo’s bourse, the low-cost carrier proposed a package of debt conversion, aircraft divestment and sale of new equity to get it through the coronavirus pandemic. Norwegian did not [...]
Third time’s a charm: Tui gets new €1.8bn bailout from German government December 2, 2020 Tui has today received a third bailout from the German government, meaning that federal authorities have now shelled out €4.8bn on the travel firm. The Anglo-German giant said in a statement that it had secured an additional €1.8bn from authorities to see it through the pandemic. The funding will comprise €1.3bn from state rescue fund [...]
Bentley has hired cargo jets to fly car parts to UK to avoid Brexit border logjams December 2, 2020 Luxury car maker Bentley has hired five cargo jets to fly car parts back to the UK in case of disruption to cross-border customs flows when the Brexit transition period ends. Chief executive Adrian Hallmark said the aircraft were one of a number of precautions the firm had take ahead of 1 January. “We have [...]
Ryanair and Wizz Air passenger numbers plunge 80 per cent amid lockdown December 2, 2020 Ryanair and Wizz Air both said that passenger numbers had dropped over 80 per cent in November, with international leisure travel banned under the UK’s second national lockdown. The Irish carrier said that it flew just 2m passengers last month, down from nearly 11m for the same month in 2019. For the year to date, [...]
CMA to examine electric vehicle sector December 2, 2020 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching a market study into electric vehicle charging, following the government’s move to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles to 2030. The study will focus on the supply of chargepoints for plug-in hybrid and all-electric ‘passenger’ electric vehicles, comprising cars and light vans. The move [...]