British Airways shares in descent as it predicts 2021 Covid loss of €3bn November 5, 2021 The owner of British Airways and Iberia, IAG, reported a shrinking €2.6bn (£2.3bn) loss for the first nine months of 2021. However investors dumped IAG shares this morning after it indicated full year losses would still hit €3bn as passenger capacity has been slow to recover. Its lucrative UK-US travel corridor is due to finally [...]
ONS: Firms increasingly hiking prices as supply chain crisis bites November 4, 2021 Nearly two-fifths of UK firms reported higher costs across their supply chains in new official data, with many passing on the increase to consumers. New ONS data has seen a significant increase in the number of firms putting up prices, from 4 per cent at the start of the year to 15 per cent in [...]
Britain becomes the first country to approve COVID-19 antiviral pill November 4, 2021 Britain has become the first country in the world to approve a potentially game-changing COVID-19 antiviral oral pill jointly developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
Education secretary: Test children for Covid daily instead of sending them home November 3, 2021 Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has urged that children undergo daily Covid-19 testing to avoid them missing out on school. Zahawi said the approach would be “much better”, with children in school and taking lateral flow tests as opposed to being at home due to coming in contact with a positive case. Daily testing should be [...]
End of furlough ‘has not led to surge in jobseekers’ November 2, 2021 The end of the multi-billion-pound furlough wage subsidy has not led to a surge in new job-seekers, according to data that suggests unemployment is unlikely to rise sharply and may bolster the case for a Bank of England interest rate hike. Data by recruitment website Indeed, seen by Reuters ahead of publication, shows only a [...]
One night in Bangkok (quarantine): Thailand reopens to UK tourists November 1, 2021 After nearly two years of all but a trickle of foreign arrivals, Thailand is reopening to mass tourism, with travellers required to spend just one night in quarantine while they await Covid test results. Hundreds of vaccinated foreign tourists this morning arrived in the Thai capital for quarantine-free travel after the Southeast Asian nation approved [...]
Golden age of freelance: As trust in our bosses drops, external advisors thrive October 29, 2021 Given the volatile conditions in practically every market since the outbreak of the pandemic, in March of last year, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced most businesses to make decisions fast. In fact, the ongoing pandemic has left 6m UK small businesses and 16m jobs in a precarious position, according to recent data from the London Business School. As a result, many [...]
All countries to be removed from red list confirms Shapps October 28, 2021 Transport secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed that all remaining countries on the UK Government’s red travel list will be removed from 1 November at 4am, putting an end to quarantine hotels. The list – which was amended on 7 October – included Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. “We can also [...]
MPs mull the end of hotel quarantine as battered travel firms yearn for recovery October 28, 2021 MPs are mulling the end of hotel quarantine and wiping remaining countries from the red travel list, according to reports. The red list has been drastically cut down earlier this month, ahead of the October half-term, with just seven Latin American countries remaining. Though ministers could reportedly scrap the red travel list on Thursday, which [...]
Rishi Sunak: Because of govt’s pandemic response we are seeing proper bounce-back October 28, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak said this morning the action the Government took to support the economy during the coronavirus pandemic meant the UK was seeing better than expected growth in the bounce-back. The Chancellor told Sky News: “I think it is important to remember why we are in this position. “A year ago we outlined our [...]