Buffett sells shares; China’s departures up
Air travel has come to almost a complete standstill and industry executives believe the industry could shrink. The situation continues to worsen.
• Billionaire Warren Buffett said over the weekend that he had unloaded his company’s entire stake in U.S. airlines, believing he was mistaken in his valuation of the industry. Shares of American, Delta and United plunged between 5-8 percent Monday. Southwest slid 6 percent.
• Frontier Airlines said it will let passengers guarantee an empty middle seat next to them — for a fee starting at $39 a flight. The option will start with flights on Friday and run through Aug.
31. Frontier previously announced that passengers will be required to wear face coverings, also starting Friday.
• China’s airline sector may be seeing some life. Tracking service Flightradar24 said Monday that daily departures from China’s 25 busiest airports in the last week of April topped 5,000 for the first time since late January. However, that’s still only about half their 2020 peak.
• Shareholders of the low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle approved a plan to rescue the company by swapping debt for equity so that it might access some of the government’s guarantees worth $290 million.The carrier already has laid off 90 percent of its workforce.
• The European Union approved $7.6 billion in loans and guarantees that the French state is providing to Air France. Air France will get $3.28 billion in direct loans from the French state and a $4.37 billion bank loan guaranteed by the state, the airline said in a statement.