European car giants count cost of dire year for auto industry January 12, 2021 European car giants this morning began to lay out of the full cost of the coronavirus pandemic on their performances in 2020. Over the course of the year, vehicle sales plummeted as factories and showrooms were shuttered around the world. French auto firm Renault said that worldwide sales fell 21.3 per cent last year as [...]
Exclusive: TfL took legal advice on cancelling First Group tram contract after fatal Croydon crash January 12, 2021 Transport for London (TfL) was considering cancelling Tram Operations Limited’s (TOL) contract to run the Croydon tram network in the aftermath of 2016’s fatal crash, but concluded it would be too difficult to do so. City PM has obtained TfL documents from 2017 showing that the transport operator received legal advice on whether it could [...]
Cruise ship operator and Diamond Princess owner Carnival posts $2bn loss January 11, 2021 Cruise ship operator and Diamond Princess owner Carnival posts $2bn loss
Exclusive: Shipping boss threatened staff with unpaid leave if they worked from home during lockdown January 11, 2021 The CEO of infrastructure facility provider Infrastrata told colleagues to defy government guidance and work from the office during the last national lockdown, or face unpaid leave. In an email sent to colleagues on 4 November and seen by City PM, CEO John Wood told colleagues that anyone wishing not to come into the office during the lockdown [...]
Jaguar Land Rover secures second straight quarter of sales growth January 11, 2021 Jaguar Land Rover closed out a brutal year for the car industry with a second successive quarter of sales growth, the luxury car brand reported today. The auto firm sold 128,469 cars in the last quarter, up 13.1 per cent from 113,569 vehicles sold in the preceding quarter. However, as a result of the pandemic, [...]
Heathrow passenger numbers fall nearly 75 per cent in 2020 January 11, 2021 Just 22.1m passengers passed through Heathrow Airport in 2020, it was revealed today, a 73 per cent fall year-on-year. The UK’s biggest airport said that the coronavirus had seen 58m fewer travellers pass through its gates than in 2019. Cargo volumes through Britain’s biggest port also fell 28.2 per cent because of restrictions on international [...]
Easyjet secures $2bn loan as coronavirus pain goes on January 11, 2021 Easyjet has today secured a new $1.9bn (£1.4bn) five year loan as it takes further steps to bolster its finances amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement, the carrier said that the loan would “significantly extend and improve easyJet’s debt maturity profile and strengthen easyJet’s balance sheet by increasing the level of available liquidity”. The [...]
FCA approves world’s first air travel revenue hedging system January 11, 2021 The UK’s financial regulators has approved Airbus subsidiary Skytra’s Air Travel Price Indices, a key step in allowing airlines to manage revenue volatility. Through building the world’s largest air ticketing database, the firm has developed a set of regulated benchmarks based on US$ per Revenue Passenger Kilometre ($/RPK). This represents the price of air travel [...]
Boeing 737: Indonesian passenger plane missing after ‘falling 10,000ft’ January 9, 2021 A Boeing 737 passenger plane with an estimated 62 people on board has disappeared after taking off from Jakarta. According to reports, the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737 lost contact on its route from the Indonesian capital to Pontianak on the island of Borneo. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said the aircraft, which set off at 2.37pm [...]
Gove expects Brexit delays at the border with France and Ireland to worsen January 8, 2021 Gove expects Brexit delays at the border with France and Ireland to worsen