SYDNEY -- Singapore Airlines Ltd on Thursday reported its first-ever annual loss, citing poor fuel hedging bets and the collapse in demand driven by the coronavirus pandemic, and said the timing of any recovery was uncertain.
The airline, a bellwether for premium travel in Asia, swung to a S$212 million ($149.14 million) net loss in the financial year ended March 31, down from a S$683 million profit a year earlier, in line with guidance to investors provided last week.
In the fourth quarter, it lost S$732 million, down from a S$203 million profit the prior year. Singapore Airlines did not declare a dividend and said the prospects of a recovery in international travel depended on when border controls and travel restrictions eased.
"There are few signs of abatement in the COVID-19 pandemic," the airline said in a statement. "The group will maintain a minimum flight connectivity within its network during this period, while ensuring the flexibility to scale up capacity if there is an uptick in demand."
Airline passenger traffic is not expected to return to pre-crisis levels until 2023 at the earliest and domestic markets will recovery more quickly than international travel, the International Air Transport Association said on Wednesday.
Singapore, a small city-state that lacks a domestic aviation market, is closed to transit passengers on which the airline normally relies for much of its revenue.
Singapore Airlines and regional arm SilkAir have cut 96 percent of capacity through the end of June, and low-cost arm Scoot has cut 98 percent.
The airline said in February it had entered fuel hedging contracts through March 31, 2025. A collapse in the global oil market, which has lost more than half of its value so far this year, led to big losses on those contracts, including S$710 million recorded in the fourth quarter.
Singapore Airlines said further hedging losses were likely in the current financial year.
The airline's majority shareholder, state-fund Temasek Holdings, in March agreed to underwrite the sale of S$8.8 billion of shares and up to S$6.2 billion of convertible bonds in one of the biggest rescue packages in the global aviation industry since the coronavirus crisis hit.
Singapore Airlines said on Thursday it would only tap the convertible bonds if necessary and was concurrently exploring other funding sources such as secured financing and sale-and-leaseback transactions over its airplanes.
The carrier has cut executive salaries and is in talks with manufacturers to push back deliveries of new planes as it looks to conserve cash and moderate capacity growth in the near term.
The airline's management team is due to hold a results briefing for analysts and media on Friday.
-reuters-
MANILA - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has upended livelihoods, and the transport sector is among those bearing the brunt of the crisis.
Since mass transit in Luzon has been suspended, public utility drivers are not able to make a living, putting their lives hanging precariously in the balance.
But a group of University of the Philippines (UP) alumnae and students has come to the rescue of out-of-work drivers, through the Facebook group "SuperTsuper."
"It's just so heartbreaking to see the hardworking people who bring us to where we need to be everyday immobilized by the lockdown, so we wanted to help even in just a small way," Mariel Cunanan, one of the group's administrators, told ABS-CBN News on Thursday.
Cunanan and her friends created the Facebook group on March 31, and since then nearly 35,000 joined to help.
"What prompted this whole thing is seeing a lot of drivers on social media asking for even just 1 or 2 pesos from people on GCash to help them survive this lockdown," she said.
Through "SuperTsuper," drivers of jeepneys, tricycles and transportation network vehicle service (TNVS) could ask for donation from group members coursed through Globe's e-wallet service GCash.
Cunanan and other administrators strictly screen the PUV drivers to ensure their call for help are legitimate. They will be asked to provide their names, photos, addresses and name of their respective associations.
"Once posted, donors are free to donate to whoever they like, regardless of amount and how many people they want to give to," she said.
She added, "So the money doesn't really go through us -- the whole selling point of SuperTsuper is direct donations. No more middlemen so you know 100% of your money is going to someone in need. And it's also an avenue for donors and the tsupers to interact, humanizing the donation process because the donors will see the people whose lives they're touching talaga."
The donation varies from P20 to P2,000, Cunanan said.
One story that stuck with her was that of 63-year-old jeepney driver Eduardo Solis.
"He has 3 children and 6 dogs to feed, and it was a true testament to how sometimes those who have less have the most love to give," she said.
Since most seniors are not tech-savvy, Cunanan said she had to guide Solis on using social media.
"A lot of drivers are like this, very grateful to the donors and extremely kind. All of their stories are worth hearing talaga," she added.
In nearly 2 weeks, "SuperTsuper" has helped some 700 to 900 drivers all over the Philippines and will continue to do so as long as people are willing to donate.
"Give what you can because "not much" to us can mean everything to them," Cunanan said.
The Philippine government imposed an enhanced community quarantine in the entire Luzon, home to more than 50 million people, to arrest the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The same measure was imposed in many other areas in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Transport group Piston earlier said there were 500,000 jeepney drivers and 200,000 small jeepney operators affected by the lockdown.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LONDON/PARIS - Global airlines urged governments on Tuesday to speed up bailouts to rescue the air transport industry as they doubled their estimate of 2020 revenue losses from the coronavirus crisis to more than $250 billion.
"We clearly need massive action very quickly and urgently," Alexandre de Juniac, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), told reporters on a conference call.
Airlines worldwide have grounded the majority of their fleets to preserve cash amid mounting travel restrictions designed to slow the spread of the epidemic.
The result has been huge pressure on the liquidity of airlines, up to half of which face possible bankruptcy in coming weeks if nothing is done to support the industry, IATA said.
"We have a liquidity crisis coming at full speed - no revenues and costs still on our (books), so we desperately need some cash," de Juniac said.
His warning came after Ryanair, Europe's largest budget airline, told customers it had effectively written off the next two months, while European air traffic management body Eurocontrol said volumes on Monday were down more than 75% from the same day last year.
De Juniac, a former Air France-KLM boss, brushed aside a growing debate about whether relief for airlines should come with strings attached, such as new commitments on climate goals.
But he said the airline industry would continue efforts already under way to curb emissions once the crisis recedes.
"We are in an emergency situation. It's no time for requirements. I'm sorry for that. We need a full speed massive rescue package now," de Juniac said.
With airlines at the front of bailout queues, green advocates fear climate action may lose momentum.
In the United States, Republicans have opposed providing bailouts to passenger and cargo carriers, proposing help in the form of $58 billion in loans and saying the government could demand stock, options or other equity in return.
IATA, which groups some 280 airlines including most of the world's largest network carriers, said signs of a deep recession could delay a recovery in airline travel - in contrast with the fast rebound seen after previous epidemics.
That could mean "more of a U-shaped than V-shaped recovery," Chief Economist Brian Pearce said, referring in the latter instance to the shape of the graph of air travel indicators seen after the SARS outbreak in 2003.
IATA says 2.7 million jobs are supported by the airline industry, with tens of thousands already being furloughed.
"There are a very large number of airlines that are more or less breaking even and ... facing losses. Those airlines are very fragile," Pearce said. (Reporting by Sarah Young, Laurence Frost; writing by Costas Pitas, Tim Hepher; Editing by Paul Sandle, Mark Potter)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON/SHANGHAI/MADRID - France and Spain joined Italy in imposing lockdowns on tens of millions of people, Australia ordered self-isolation of arriving foreigners and other countries extended entry bans as the world sought to contain the spreading coronavirus.
Panic buying in Australia, the United States and Britain saw leaders appeal for calm over the virus that has infected over 156,000 people globally and killed more than 5,800.
Several countries imposed bans on mass gathering, shuttered sporting, cultural and religious events, while medical experts urged people to practice "social distancing" to curb the spread.
Austria's chancellor urged people to self-isolate and announced bans on gatherings of more than 5 people and further limits on who can enter the country.
All of Pope Francis' Easter services next month will be held without the faithful attending, the Vatican said on Sunday, in a step believed to be unprecedented in modern times.
The services, 4 days of major events from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday, usually draw tens of thousands of people to sites in Rome and in the Vatican.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said from midnight Sunday international travellers arriving in the country would need to isolate themselves for 14 days, and foreign cruise ships would be banned for 30 days, given a rise in imported cases.
Australia's latest restrictions mirror those announced by neighboring New Zealand on Saturday.
TRAVEL BANS, AIRLINE CUTBACKS
Donald Trump tested negative for the coronavirus, his doctor said on Saturday, as the US president extended his country's travel ban to Britain and Ireland.
Last week, Trump had met a Brazilian delegation in which at least one member has since been tested positive.
Travel restrictions and bans, and a plunge in global air travel, saw further airline cutbacks, with American Airlines Inc planning to cut 75 percent of international flights through May 6 and ground nearly all its widebody fleet.
China tightened checks on international travellers arriving at Beijing airport on Sunday, after the number of imported new coronavirus infections surpassed locally transmitted cases for a second day in a row.
Anyone arriving to Beijing from abroad will be transferred directly to a central quarantine facility for 14 days for observation starting March 16, a city government official said.
China, where the epidemic began in December, appears to now face a greater threat of new infections from outside its borders as it continues to slow the spread of the virus domestically.
China has reported 80,984 cases and 3,203 deaths. The country imposed draconian containment policies from January, locking down several major cities.
LOCKDOWNS, STAY HOME
Spain put its 47 million inhabitants under partial lockdown on Saturday as part of a 15-day state of emergency to combat the epidemic in Europe's second worst-affected country after Italy.
Streets in Madrid and Barcelona were deserted on Sunday. All major newspapers carried a front-page wrapper emblazoned with a government-promoted slogan: "Together we'll stop this virus."
Spain has had 193 deaths from the virus and 6,250 cases so far, public broadcaster TVE said on Sunday.
France will shut shops, restaurants and entertainment facilities from Sunday with its 67 million people were told to stay home after confirmed infections doubled in 72 hours.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government had no other option after the public health authority said 91 people had died in France and almost 4,500 were now infected.
"We must absolutely limit our movements," he said.
However, French local elections went ahead.
"I am going to vote and keep living my life no matter what. I am not scared of the virus," said a 60-year-old voter, who asked to be identified only as Martine, at a Paris polling station.
Britain is preparing to ban mass gatherings and could isolate people aged over 70 for up to 4 months as part of plans to tackle coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
Argentina banned entry to non-residents who have been to any country highly affected by coronavirus in the last 14 days, while Colombia said it would expel four Europeans for violating compulsory quarantine protocols, hours after closing its border with Venezuela.
Starting Sunday, South Korea began to subject visitors from France, Germany, Britain, Spain and the Netherlands to stricter border checks, after imposing similar rules for China, Italy and Iran which have had major outbreaks.
Visitors from those countries now need to download an app to report whether they have symptoms. South Korea has been testing hundreds of thousands of people and tracking potential carriers using cell phone and satellite technology.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LONDON -- The rapid spread of coronavirus has wiped almost a third - or $70 billion - off the world's top 20 listed airlines and reshuffled global rankings, elevating Air China into third place behind US rivals, an analysis by Reuters shows.
The airline sector has been hit hardest by the outbreak of coronavirus, with falling ticket demand and Italy in lockdown forcing carriers to cancel routes and slash costs to survive the mounting crisis.
With the investor sell-off accelerating, United Airlines has lost its number three position in the global line-up to Air China.
The US carrier's market capitalization has halved to $11.6 billion, the lowest since 2003, since the start of the year, leaving it also lagging behind Europe's low-cost carrier Ryanair.
Air China has been relatively unscathed - its market cap was $15 billion on Tuesday, compared with $19 billion on Jan. 2.
The scale of the rout has been breathtaking.
Wizz Air, a budget carrier focused on central European routes, is now more highly valued than Air France-KLM, and the world's most valuable airline, Delta Air, has seen more than $10 billion knocked off its value this year, taking its market cap to about $28 billion, the lowest since September 2016.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MONTREAL, Canada - The new coronavirus outbreak could mean a reduction of $4 to 5 billion in worldwide airline revenue, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said Thursday.
The UN agency reported that 70 airlines have canceled all international flights in and out of China and 50 others have reduced their operations.
Preliminary estimates show this has meant a reduction of nearly 20 million passengers compared to expectations for the first quarter of 2020.
That figure equates to potential lost revenue of up to $5 billion, the agency said.
The virus has killed 1,483 people in China and infected more than 64,600 there. Overseas, nearly 600 cases have emerged in around 30 locations
"Prior to the outbreak, airlines had planned to increase capacity by 9 percent on international routes to/from China for the first quarter of 2020 compared to 2019," ICAO said in a statement.
The reality has been a reduction in foreign airline traveler capacity of 80 percent.
Japan looks to be hardest-hit from a reduction in Chinese air travelers in the first quarter, ICAO said. The country could lose $1.29 billion in tourism revenue, with Thailand not far behind at a $1.15 billion loss potential.
ICAO said the effects of the COVID-19 virus outbreak on the airline industry are expected to be larger than the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic because flight cancellations are more widespread this time.
In addition, China's international air traffic has doubled and its domestic air traffic increased 5-fold in the last 17 years.
Chinese authorities have locked down Hubei province, the virus epicenter, and have restricted movements in several cities as part of an unprecedented effort to contain the virus.
Britain, Germany, the US, Japan and others have advised against travel to China.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA -- A swarm of near-stationary smartphones on a main road tells Google's artificial intelligence (AI) that there's a gridlock. Maps then offers a homebound commuter to take a different route or wait out the traffic jam at a new bar that he or she might like.
On its 15th birthday, Google Maps is evolving into more than just a digital compass to get from point A to point B. In an update that will roll out starting 7 p.m. Thursday, app users will start to receive new features, including a new commute tab and suggested locations, officials said.
The commute tab will include routes for two-wheeled vehicles such as motorbikes, which is an emerging transportation segment in Southeast Asia where motor taxi-hailing apps like Angkas, Joyride and Go-Jek have become an alternative for commuters.
Google Maps wants to make it easier for users to pick their mode of transportation based on speed and cost, said Google Maps Senior Vice-President Jen Fitzpatrick.
"People can more easily make the decision: What route is best for me? What mode of transportation is best for me? What are the tradeoffs? Which is cheaper, much faster?" she told Asian journalists in a conference call from Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
"Should I leave 30 minutes later? We have that flexibility because traffic is gonna get better. We hope people can make their trips better with Google Maps," she said.
Google's machine learning gathers data from users to help determine in real time which areas are choked in traffic, officials said. Google Maps harnesses data from users in 220 countries who drive a combined 1 billion kilometers per day or the equivalent of 25,000 trips around the world.
Including routes for motorbikes and scooters recognizes evolving transportation trends, said Google Maps Vice-President for Product Dan Glasgow. Two-wheelers move faster and can split lanes unlike four-wheeled vehicles, he said.
"Phones are sitting still. That's a big sign that there's a traffic jam or traffic is really slow or if there's a road closure," said Fitzpatrick, who has been with Google Maps since its inception. "The algorithm is not country-specific. It's meant to reflect all different forms of traffic patterns."
NEW LOOK MAPS
The redesigned Google Maps will roll out worldwide with a refreshed icon—a location pin—to reflect what Google said was consumers searching for experiences and places.
The new features will be rolled out in phases depending on the country, Google said.
The bottom navigation tab on the Google Maps interface was expanded to 5 from just 3. Explore will gather information and ratings on some 200 million places around the world, Google said.
The Commute tab will have real-time traffic updates and travel times. The Saved tab will collect users' favorite locations. Google said users saved some 6.5 billion places on the app.
The Contribute tab will be a place for users to share reviews, photos and information on missing places on the app. Updates will suggest places that a user might like based on navigation history.
It will also be easier for users to go "incognito" while using Google Maps, stopping the platform from sharing their data, officials said. It will be available by swiping from the left side of the screen.
Google is working to integrate its augmented reality tech to Maps, Fitzpatrick said. A feature being tested deploys a bot to call establishments to check common but simple questions such as will a restaurant be open on a holiday, she said.
In the last year alone, through machine learning, Google Maps added more buildings than in the previous 10 years, she said.
"The real world is constantly changing and that pushes us to think about how the Maps experience needs to evolve," she said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SYDNEY -- Australia will begin screening passengers arriving from a Chinese city in a bid to stop the spread of a new coronavirus, the country's chief medical officer said on Tuesday, although authorities warned that an outbreak would be hard to prevent.
Chinese authorities have confirmed more than 200 people have caught the new virus, which causes a type of pneumonia that has killed four people in the central city of Wuhan.
The virus - which can pass from person-to-person - broke out in Wuhan but 4 cases have been reported in Thailand, Japan and South Korea, raising concerns about its spread through international air travel.
Brendan Murphy, the chief medical officer for the Australian government, said biosecurity officials would begin screening passengers arriving on the three weekly flights to Sydney from Wuhan starting on Thursday.
Passengers would be given an information pamphlet and asked to present themselves if they had a fever or suspected they might have the disease.
Murphy said the measures only offered limited protection.
"You cannot absolutely prevent the spread of disease into the country. The incubation period is probably a week," Murphy told reporters in Canberra.
"It's about identifying those with a high risk and making sure those who have a high risk know about it and know how to get medical attention."
China is the largest source of tourists to Australia, with more than 1 million people arriving last year.
Around 160 flights arrive in Australia from China each week, and Murphy acknowledged Chinese tourists could arrive via other locations. There are only three flights from Wuhan each week, arriving in Sydney.
Australia's additional screenings come as hundreds of millions of Chinese prepare to travel domestically and abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday that starts this week.
Despite the elevated risk, Murphy said Australia would not begin scanning passengers for higher body temperatures, a precaution previously used during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.
SARS killed nearly 800 people globally during the 2002/03 outbreak that also started in China, but Murphy said recent evidence indicated body-temperature screening was ineffective and created a false sense of security.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LAS VEGAS -- Hyundai announced Monday it would mass produce flying cars for Uber's aerial ride-share network set to deploy in 2023.
The South Korean manufacturer said it would produce the four-passenger electric "vertical take-off and landing vehicles" at "automotive scale," without offering details.
The deal announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas could help Uber, which is working with other aircraft manufacturers, to achieve its goal of deploying air taxi service in a handful of cities by 2023.
Jaiwon Shin, head of Hyundai's urban air mobility division, said he expects the large-scale manufacturing to keep costs affordable for the aerial systems.
"We know how to mass produce high quality vehicles," Shin told a news conference at CES.
He said he expected the partnership to allow for the short-range air taxis to be "affordable for everyone."
Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate, appeared at the CES event with Hyundai to discuss the partnership.
"By taking transportation out of the two dimensional grid on the ground and moving it into the sky, we can offer significant time savings to our riders," Allison said.
He said that because of its other app-based transport options, "only Uber can seamlessly connect riders from cars, trains and even bikes to aircraft."
Uber has announced it had selected Melbourne to join Dallas and Los Angeles in becoming the first cities to offer Uber Air flights, with the goal of beginning demonstrator flights in 2020 and commercial operations in 2023.
Hyundai is using CES to show the S-A1 model aircraft with a cruising speed up to 180 miles (290 km) per hour.
The aircraft utilizes "distributed electric propulsion," designed with multiple rotors that can keep it in the air if one of them fails.
The smaller rotors also help reduce noise, which the companies said is important to cities.
The Hyundai vehicle will be piloted initially but over time will become autonomous, the company said.
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON -- Boeing Co and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed on Sunday they are reviewing a wiring issue that could potentially cause a short circuit on the grounded 737 MAX.
Boeing spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Sunday the US planemaker "identified this issue as part of that rigorous process, and we are working with the FAA to perform the appropriate analysis. It would be premature to speculate as to whether this analysis will lead to any design changes."
The New York Times reported Boeing is reviewing whether two bundles of wiring are too close together, which could lead to a short circuit and potentially result in a crash if pilots did not respond appropriately.
The FAA said in a statement Sunday the agency and company "are analyzing certain findings from a recent review of the proposed modifications to the Boeing 737 MAX." The agency added it would "ensure that all safety related issues identified during this process are addressed."
Boeing is currently working to design separating the wiring bundles if necessary and conducting extensive analysis to establish if the electrical fault could occur in a real-world scenario, a company official said.
Officials said the FAA had directed Boeing to complete an audit in December. The wiring issue could push back the return of the MAX, the officials added. Reuters has reported previously the FAA is not likely to approve the plane until at least February and might not until March or later.
The FAA flagged the wiring issue as potentially "catastrophic." It is possible other protections like shielding, insulation and circuit breakers could prevent the short circuit, a company official said.
Boeing will halt production of the 737 MAX this month following the grounding in March of its best-selling plane after two fatal crashes in five months killed 346 people.
Last month, Boeing's board fired Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg after repeatedly failing to contain the fallout from the crashes that tarnished its reputation with airlines and regulators.
The crisis has cost Boeing $9 billion, and has hurt suppliers and airlines.
Boeing is struggling to mend relations with the U.S. and international regulators it needs to win over to get the jet back in the air.
Separately, US and European regulators are expected to return to Iowa this week to review a software documentation audit of the 737 MAX that was not completed last year, officials said Sunday. FAA and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency are scheduled to meet in Seattle this week and then return to Rockwell Collins facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa next weekend to review the audit.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK -- United Airlines said Tuesday it had ordered 50 Airbus A321XLR aircraft, worth an estimated $6.5 billion, to replace an existing fleet of aging Boeings.
The new Airbus planes, which will be delivered in 2024, will allow United to retire its Boeing 757-200s, the company said.
The Airbus order is the latest blow to the American manufacturer, already deeply mired in the crisis surrounding its 737 MAX.
Boeing, whose 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide after two crashes that resulted in 346 deaths, currently has no new aircraft to compete with the Airbus A321XLR in the mid-market range.
Airbus launched the A321XLR only this year, at the Paris Air Show in June.
The single-aisle aircraft's range is 15 percent above that of its predecessor model, the A321LR, making it a cost-effective alternative to long-haul wide-body planes.
United said it would use the new aircraft to serve additional European destinations from US East Coast hubs in Newark/New York and Washington.
United turned to Airbus for the purchase due to Boeing's lack of aircraft in the mid-market range, a source close to the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"There are no aircraft currently offered by Boeing that can replace the 757," the source said, adding that negotiations between Airbus and United began several months ago.
Boeing, which is currently focused on returning its MAX aircraft to the sky, has already postponed possible announcement of a new model aircraft (NMA) until next year.
The manufacturer recently presented the design to various airlines, industrial sources told AFP.
Airbus decided to no longer publish the catalog prices for its aircraft beginning in 2019. However, the A321XLR is a long-range version of the A321, whose unit value was $129.5 million in 2018.
United has meanwhile postponed receipt of its first 45 Airbus A350 long-haul aircraft by 5 years.
The company, which ordered the planes in 2017, said it now plans to have them delivered in 2027 instead of 2022.
Agence France-Presse
A pair of storms packing heavy snow and hurricane-force winds left tens of thousands without power in the United States on Wednesday and wreaked havoc for Americans traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday.
On one of the country's busiest travel days of the year with an estimated 55 million people planning to drive or fly, highways in the West and Midwest were closed because of snow, and hundreds of flights were canceled.
Giant, colorful character balloons floating through Manhattan during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, a cherished staple, might be grounded for Thursday's festivities because of gusting winds in the Big Apple.
"An extremely active weather pattern is in place across much of the US," the National Weather Service said.
A snow storm that caused near white-out blizzard conditions in Colorado dumped a foot of snow in Wyoming on Tuesday, and was barreling eastward toward the Great Lakes region in the central US.
Plows worked through the night at the airport in Minneapolis, a snow-savvy city girding for possibly its biggest November dump ever.
At the airport in Denver, which was hit with a foot of snow, nearly 500 flights were canceled and another 500 were delayed.
On Monday night, 1,000 people slept at the airport.
Among them was Sonya Washington, bound for Thanksgiving with family in Atlanta, who sat on a plane for two hours as the snow fell until her flight was canceled. The next possible direct trip is Thursday night.
"Thanksgiving is over, then," Washington told the Denver Post.
Out west, a dangerous storm hit southern Oregon and northern California that meteorologists are calling a "bomb cyclone" -- a rapidly intensifying winter storm caused by a precipitous drop in atmospheric pressure.
'LIKE BOMB GOING OFF'
"The drop typically creates violent weather that arrives like a bomb going off," The Oregonian newspaper said.
It dumped a foot of snow, forced roads to close and prompted warnings for people to just stay home.
One wind gust Tuesday in Lake Tahoe, Nevada was clocked at 93 miles (155 kilometers) per hour. Hurricane force begins at 74 mph.
The US Northwest has not been hit by such a powerful storm since 1962, said Marc Spilde of the National Weather Service.
"This storm threatens to bring rain and mountain snow to much of California, including places like San Francisco and Sacramento, places that were largely spared by the past week's rain," said Accuweather senior meteorologist Brian Thompson.
The National Weather Service said while the two separate storms are expected to weaken Wednesday and Thursday, holiday travel would be affected through the weekend.
It also warned of the potential of flash floods in southern California through Thanksgiving Day because of heavy rain.
The storms and high winds have left nearly 300,000 people without power across five states, including Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, according to poweroutages.us, a utility tracking site.
The nasty weather and blizzard conditions have also forced the closure of major travel routes, including Interstate 5, the main thoroughfare from Oregon into California.
Motorists on the highway reported being stuck for hours on the road overnight, with some having to sleep in their cars.
In Arizona, the National Weather Service said it expected travel conditions to be "difficult to impossible" from late afternoon Thursday through Friday morning.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
DUBAI -- Emirates and Boeing were poised on Wednesday to seal a compromise deal that would see the Dubai carrier order around 30 787 Dreamliners, paving the way for a reduced order for delayed 777X jets, people familiar with the matter said.
Emirates tentatively ordered 40 Dreamliners in 2017 but "tough" last-minute talks to finalize the order this week have hinged on negotiations over the fate of a massive separate order for 150 777X after the latter ran into delays, they said.
A restructuring of the 777X order may, however, not be highlighted officially at the Dubai Airshow, where Emirates plans an announcement for 0700 GMT on Wednesday (3 p.m. in Manila).
Emirates and Boeing declined to comment.
Sources cautioned talks were still going on in Dubai and the number of aircraft ordered could be subject to last-minute adjustments, but said it was unlikely Emirates would take all 40 787 jets announced at the largest Middle East air show in 2017.
One source said the order could involve as many as 35 787s.
Emirates has been looking at reducing part of its 777X order, which the airline's president Tim Clark said on Tuesday could be influenced by the delays and in turn determine whether it went ahead with a 787 deal.
Emirates says it no longer knows when it will receive its first 777X, which was supposed to be delivered next year. Boeing has said the 777X will be delivered in 2021.
Easing an eight-month-old crisis over the grounding of its smaller 737 MAX, Boeing had earlier at the Nov 17-21 show won tentative or firm orders for 60 of the grounded MAX jets.
But industry sources had warned that Boeing had risked leaving Dubai without resolving the critical set of interlocking deals with Emirates, the industry's largest customer for wide-body jets and the backbone for the 777X program.
A high-profile order announcement on Wednesday would also effectively deliver a message of support from Dubai for the troubled US planemaker, whose ongoing MAX crisis has harmed Emirates sister carrier flydubai, analysts said.
The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, is a close ally of the United States, which has poured support into the region amid tensions between Iran and Gulf Arab states that provided a tense backdrop to the Middle East industry event.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
BOGOTA — China's APCA Transmimetro has won a $4 billion contract to build an elevated metro line in Bogota, Colombia's President Ivan Duque announced Thursday.
APCA Transmimetro, which includes China Harbor Engineering and Xi'An Metro as well as Spanish and Brazilian subcontractors, will build and operate the line under a 20-year concession.
"Today is a cause for celebration for all Bogota residents, and for all of Colombia," Duque said when making the announcement in Bogota.
"Here begins the real metro that the city has been waiting decades for," he said.
Bogota's mayor Enrique Penalosa said work on the project will begin in the first half of next year and the line would be operational by 2025.
A 24-kilometer elevated electric-powered line will serve 16 stations in the city of 7 million people, catering for more than a million passengers a day.
Ticket costs have yet to be defined.
But city authorities said they would hope to keep them at around the same cost as a bus ticket, around 2,400 pesos or 0.70 dollars
APCA Transmimetro beat off competition from a Spanish-Mexican consortium that included Spain's FCC Concesiones de Infraestructura and Mexico's Carso Infraestructura and Construccion and Promotora del Desarrollo de America Latina.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Just weeks after his inauguration, President Donald Trump toured Boeing’s factory in North Charleston, South Carolina, holding a rally with workers, admiring a new 787 Dreamliner and calling on the company to bring down the cost of new Air Force One planes.
But Boeing wanted something from Trump, too.
During a private conversation at the event, Boeing’s chief executive, Dennis A. Muilenburg, talked to Trump about a long-running trade dispute between the United States and the European Union that had its roots in the pitched rivalry between Boeing and Airbus, according to 3 people familiar with the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a delicate matter.
The case, which centered on subsidies that Europe provides Airbus, had been working its way through the World Trade Organization for years, but an end was finally in sight. In the event that it was settled on Trump’s watch, Muilenburg urged the president to enforce the ruling, which would mean levying tariffs on European goods.
On Wednesday, Boeing got its wish. After an announcement by the World Trade Organization, the Trump administration said it would tax as much as $7.5 billion of European exports annually.
It was the largest-ever authorized retaliation in the organization’s history, adding another layer of complexity to a global economy already rattled by brewing trade wars and further straining relations between the United States and the EU. And it was the government’s boldest-ever step to protect Boeing, the United States’ largest manufacturing exporter.
“All of those countries were ripping off the United States for many years,” Trump said Wednesday at a news conference with the president of Finland, an EU member. “They know I’m wise to it. We’ve had a lot of wins. This was a $7 billion win. Not bad.”
It was also a win for Boeing, one decades in the making. Boeing has pursued its case against Airbus since the waning days of the Clinton administration, compiling evidence and finally persuading the United States to file a complaint with the WTO in 2004.
Yet this is hardly a clean victory for Boeing. The company is in the midst of the biggest crisis of its 103-year history after the 737 Max was grounded because of two deadly crashes, and has infuriated many of its most important customers with its faltering response. Some of the customers affected by the Max grounding also buy Airbus planes and now face the prospect of higher costs as a result of the tariffs, adding to their frustrations with Boeing.
What’s more, in a case that the WTO is expected to decide next year, Europe accuses the United States of providing illegal subsidies to Boeing. A ruling against the United States could lead to tariffs against Boeing planes sold to European customers. Europe could also find ways to retaliate against the tariffs announced after last week’s ruling.
“It’s a Boeing victory,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at the Teal Group. “But one that may have unintended consequences that are not in Boeing’s interest.”
At issue was the substantial financial support that European countries have given to Airbus in the form of below-market-rate loans that are often forgiven. Without that support, the United States and Boeing argued, Airbus would never have been able to become a true rival to Boeing. With help from those loans, Airbus went from having less than 25 percent of the market share for large commercial airplanes in 1990 to overtaking Boeing in 2003. Today, Airbus and Boeing roughly split the market for commercial jets.
Boeing hopes the new tariffs will reverse some of those gains. Airlines in the United States will now have to pay at least 10 percent more for Airbus jets coming from Europe, potentially steering more orders toward Boeing. And the EU may be forced to reconsider its support for Airbus, with the tariffs in place until the two sides negotiate a settlement or the WTO decides that Europe is in compliance with its rules.
“Europe is facing tariffs today because Airbus has refused for years to comply with WTO rulings,” Boeing said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Airbus’ noncompliance will negatively impact European member states, industries and businesses completely unrelated to Airbus’ actions, as well as Airbus’ airline customers.”
Airbus accepted the ruling, while calling for a settlement. Its chief executive, Guillaume Faury, said tariffs “would be a barrier against free trade and would have a negative impact on not only the US airlines but also US jobs, suppliers and air travelers.”
Airlines expressed their displeasure with the ruling last week, and the stocks of American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, the three domestic carriers that fly Boeing’s Max, all fell as a result of the pending tariffs.
Delta called them “an unfair tax on US consumers and companies.” JetBlue, which flies only Airbus planes, said it was “concerned about the detrimental impact aircraft tariffs will have” and argued they would “harm customers who rely on us to offer competitive, low fares.”
Other major airlines in the United States did not comment on the tariffs, preferring to avoid publicly criticizing Trump, yet were quietly fuming.
The tariff package could have been worse for Europe and its customers. The Office of the US Trade Representative said it planned to start by levying a 10 percent tariff on European aircraft and a 25 percent tariff on agricultural goods, including French wine and Spanish olive oil. Those taxes may be manageable for a time, but leave the United States room to increase pressure in the future.
But no party got everything it wanted. Boeing had hoped the tariffs would tax airplane parts from Europe, a move that would have hurt Airbus, which opened a factory in Mobile, Alabama, in 2015. In the end, the Trump administration declined to do so, believing that such a move might damage manufacturing in a pro-Trump state.
Airlines, meanwhile, had been lobbying for the tariffs to be structured in a way that minimized their pain. Last week, a bipartisan group of 34 lawmakers sent a letter urging Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, to avoid levying tariffs and, if he did, to exempt existing aircraft orders. But the tariffs will hit existing orders.
With more rulings from the WTO and the threat of European tariffs targeting US products looming, Boeing may not have long to savor its success. Yet in the midst of a trying year for the company, the decision was a welcome bit of good news.
“The extent to which European member states went to create and sustain Airbus for the purpose of competing with Boeing, an iconic American company, is unprecedented,” said Robert Novick, a partner at the law firm WilmerHale who represented Boeing in the case. “Indeed, the WTO established that, and the level of harm it found to Boeing is unprecedented.”
2019 The New York Times Company
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TOKYO - An express train and a truck collided in Japan's second-largest city of Yokohama on Thursday, train operator Keikyu Corp said, with fire officials confirming that about 30 people were injured.
The collision on a key rail link to Tokyo, the capital, smashed the glass in the driver's compartment and derailed at least the first 3 carriages of the 8-carriage train, video images showed, as rescuers surrounded the site.
"The sound of glass breaking was incredible," one passenger told national broadcaster NHK. "By the time I knew what had happened, the carriage was all smashed up."
The truck driver was severely hurt, but the injuries to the passengers and driver of the train did not immediately appear to be serious, NHK added.
Earlier, black smoke billowed from parts of the derailed train and the truck, which was crushed between the train and a wall, while smashed boxes and what appeared to be oranges littered the tracks.
Authorities, including the transport ministry, said they were investigating the cause but were unable to provide further details. Police confirmed a collision between a vehicle and the train, but could not elaborate, citing further investigations.
Images of people evacuating the train, a twisted electrical pole and train seats covered with broken glass figured in video posted on social media by shaken passengers.
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BEIJING - Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways on Tuesday said it had launched an investigation after a dozen oxygen bottles used by cabin crew in emergencies were found empty, or partially empty, on 2 of its aircraft.
The discovery was made on the ground in routine inspections before a departure from Toronto, the carrier said, adding that of the 22 bottles carried onboard each jet, 5 were affected on one aircraft and 8 on the other.
"The portable oxygen bottles are for operational cabin crew use and permit crew to move around the cabin in the unlikely event of emergency aircraft depressurization," Cathay said in a statement.
"Both cabin crew and passengers have in-seat aircraft oxygen available at all times."
The airline said the depleted bottles were refilled and checked by engineers prior to departure.
The incident, which comes as the airline is under scrutiny from China's aviation regulator, caused a stir on Chinese social media, with many commentators accusing the airline of endangering flight safety.
Cathay has emerged as the highest-profile corporate target as Beijing looks to quell protests in Hong Kong, with the Chinese government demanding it suspend staff involved in a protest movement, citing flight safety concerns.
Pilots and cabin crew have described a "white terror" of political denunciations, sackings and phone searches by Chinese aviation officials.
The carrier's chief executive, Rupert Hogg, stepped down this month, and his replacement, Augustus Tang, told staff one of his priorities was to focus on safety and security.
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HONG KONG - Hundreds of Hong Kong protesters blocked train services during the early morning rush hour on Tuesday, causing commuter chaos in the latest anti-government campaign to roil the former British colony.
What started 3 months ago as rallies against an extradition bill that would have allowed people in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China for trial, has now morphed into a wider backlash against the city's government and its political masters in Beijing.
Protests have occurred almost daily, sometimes with little notice, disrupting business, piling pressure on Hong Kong's beleaguered government and stretching the city's police force, which some have accused of using excessive force.
Activists blocked train doors, playing havoc with services and forcing hundreds of people to stream out of railway stations in search of alternative transport.
"We don't know how long we are going to stay here, we don't have a leader, as you can see this is a mass movement now," said Sharon, a 21-year-old masked protester who declined to give her full name. "It's not our intention to inconvenience people, but we have to make the authorities understand why we protest. We will continue with this as long as need."
Others chanted, "Liberate Hong Kong," and "Revolution of our Time".
By mid-morning commuters were crammed into stations across the city, waiting to board trains that were badly delayed, with no service on some lines.
Rail operator MTR Corp urged people to seek other forms of transport.
Hong Kong, which returned to China in 1997, is embroiled in its worst political crisis for decades after 2 months of increasingly violent protests that have posed one of the gravest populist challenges to Communist Party rulers in Beijing.
China on Monday reiterated its support for Hong Kong's embattled leader, Carrie Lam, and its police and urged Hong Kong people to oppose violence.
The latest protest follows a demonstration at the Chinese-ruled city's international airport on Friday and violent protests at the weekend when activists clashed with police who fired rubber bullets, tear gas and sponge grenades - a crowd-control weapon.
Some scuffles broke out between commuters and protesters, who gradually began to disperse, while more police were deployed in train stations, where they stopped protesters to search their bags.
Commuters grew increasingly frustrated over the travel disruption, and shops, including bakeries and convenience stores, had also begun to close.
"It's so inconvenient and annoying, really. I am in hurry to work, to make a living. Will you give away your salary to me?" said a 64-year-old man surnamed Liu.
Others were more supportive, refusing to blame the protesters.
"This non cooperation movement is caused by Carrie Lam. She doesn't cooperate with the people of Hong Kong or respond to their demands," Jason Lo, 31, told Reuters as he waited for a train.
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Dozens of naked bikers took to Mexico City's streets Saturday to raise awareness of cycling as a healthy transportation option.
Many people get around by car in this megalopolis of more than 20 million, when a greener option might be in order amid worries about climate change.
Participants in the World Naked Bike Ride turned out with Mexican flair, some in underwear and others just as they came into the world -- plus maybe a bike helmet or colorful wrestler's mask.
Biking has gradually become more popular in traffic-choked Mexico City, which has more than four million cars on its roads daily.
Cycling is more common in the city's central districts, where bike rental services have been popping up.
The government has also tried to encourage bike use by building dedicated lanes, an effort to reduce the number of deadly crashes between cars and bikes.
In mid-May, Mexico City's air pollution levels were so high that schools closed and vehicle use was restricted. That reignited discussions on further encouraging bicycling as a commuting option.
The event in Mexico City is part of a global movement promoting greater use of bicycles in large cities and more sustainable transportation solutions.
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Last September, Uber’s top executives were pitched by some of Wall Street’s biggest banks, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
The bankers’ presentations calculated Uber’s valuation almost identically, hovering around one particular number: $120 billion.
That was the figure the bankers said they could convince investors Uber was worth when it listed its shares on the stock market, according to three people with knowledge of the talks. Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, and chief financial officer, Nelson Chai, listened and discussed the presentations, these people said. Then they hired Morgan Stanley as lead underwriter, along with Goldman Sachs and others, to take the company public — and to effectively make the $120 billion valuation a reality.
Nine months later, Uber is worth about half that figure. The ride-hailing firm went public last week at $45 a share and has since dropped to around $43, pegging Uber’s market capitalization at $72 billion — and officially crowning it as the stock market debut that lost more in dollar terms than any other American initial public offering since 1975.
How Uber’s offering turned into what some are now openly calling a “train wreck” began with the $120 billion number that the bankers floated. The figure leaked last year, whipping up a frenzy over how Uber could soon become the biggest American company to list on an American stock exchange — larger even than Facebook, which went public in 2012 at a whopping $104 billion valuation.
But for Khosrowshahi and Chai, the $120 billion number turned Uber’s IPO process into an exercise in managing expectations. Some large investors who already owned Uber shares at cheaper prices pushed back against buying more of the stock at such a lofty number, said people familiar with the matter. Their appetite for Uber was dampened further by the company’s deep losses and slowing growth in regions like Latin America. And Uber had to contend with unforeseen factors, including fraying trade talks with China that spooked the stock market in the same week that the company decided to go public.
The result has created a host of pointed questions for all involved in Uber’s IPO, from Khosrowshahi and Chai to the lead underwriters at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. While Uber raised $8.1 billion from its offering and reaped billions of dollars in returns for its early investors and founders, what should have been a climactic moment for a transportation colossus instead became an embarrassment.
The extent of the fallout may not be clear for a while, and it is too early to judge how Uber will ultimately fare in the public markets. But as many other tech-related companies aim to go public this year, including the food-delivery company Postmates and the real estate firm WeWork, they will have to contend with whether Uber has squelched what had been a red-hot IPO market.
“The $69 billion market cap Uber had when the market closed today is a new reality,” said Shawn Carolan, partner at Menlo Ventures, which invested early in the company. But he added that Uber’s executives now had “the opportunity to show us what they can do.”
This account of Uber’s IPO was based on interviews with a dozen people involved in or briefed on the process. Many asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Representatives from Uber, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
For years, Uber was an investor darling. As a privately held company, it gorged on capital from venture capital firms like Benchmark and GV, mutual fund firms like Fidelity Investments, and companies like SoftBank. Its private valuation shot up from $60 million in 2011 to $76 billion by August 2018.
Khosrowshahi, who became CEO in late 2017, was recruited partly to steer Uber through a successful IPO. Uber’s board agreed to pay him $45 million in cash and restricted stock — and set an unusually specific valuation target for an additional bonus. In a provision in Khosrowshahi’s compensation agreement, which was revealed in the company’s IPO prospectus, the board said that if Uber was valued in the public market at $120 billion or more for at least three months in the next five years, he would receive a payout of $80 million to $100 million.
That provision set something of a goal for Uber, which the investment bankers who were hired to take the company public also gravitated toward. Within weeks of the banks’ presentations on the $120 billion, that number leaked, leading to giddy speculation in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street that Uber’s offering could usher in a golden era of wealth.
By December, Uber’s IPO team was set. At the company, Chai, a former CFO at Merrill Lynch, was charged with leading the public offering. At Morgan Stanley, Michael Grimes, the firm’s star tech banker, was the point person, assisted by Kate Claassen, head of internet banking. Goldman Sachs’ team was led by Gregg Lemkau, Kim Posnett and David Ludwig. Bank of America’s was headed by Neil Kell and Ric Spencer.
Almost immediately, the setbacks began, starting with Uber’s business. Its once-meteoric growth rate was slowing as its geographic expansion appeared to be running out of room and as competitors continued springing up across the world.
One growth headache was connected to Uber’s biggest investor, SoftBank. The Japanese company, which has a $100 billion Vision Fund that it uses to invest in all manner of companies, has poured capital into technology startups including Didi Chuxing, China’s biggest ride-hailing company, and 99, a transportation startup in Latin America.
In January 2018, Didi agreed to acquire 99. Both SoftBank and Didi also started directing funds toward pushing deeper into Latin America; SoftBank eventually created a $5 billion fund earmarked specifically for investing in Latin American companies.
For Uber, the timing was terrible. The region was one of its most promising growth areas and its competition had ramped up. By this February, the damage in Latin America had begun showing up in Uber’s results in the form of slowing growth.
Uber’s food delivery business, UberEats, was under attack as well. SoftBank had sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into DoorDash, a food delivery company in the United States. More recently, SoftBank invested $1 billion into Rappi, a food delivery company in Latin America. Uber had to spend more to battle those rivals.
SoftBank and Didi declined to comment. (Uber and Didi own shares in each other as well.)
LUKEWARM DEMAND
The slowing growth led to lukewarm investor demand for Uber’s shares, according to two of the people involved in the matter. Some investors argued that Uber needed to price its offering lower, these people said.
Some investors were also resisting because they had earlier invested in Uber at cheaper prices. Since its founding in 2009, Uber has taken in more than $10 billion from mutual fund firms, private equity investors and others, meaning that its stock was already widely held among those institutions that traditionally buy shares in an IPO. So the IPO essentially became an exercise in getting existing investors to buy more shares — a tough sell, especially at a higher price.
In March, another problem cropped up. Uber’s rival in North America, Lyft, went public and promptly fell below its offering price on its second day of trading. Investors appeared skeptical about whether Lyft could make money, setting a troublesome precedent for Uber.
By the time Uber made its IPO prospectus available in April, it had already told some existing investors that its offering could value it at up to $100 billion — down from the initial $120 billion.
Inside Uber, two people familiar with the deliberations said the company’s board was also not fully briefed on how Khosrowshahi and other executives planned to pitch the firm to investors in what is known as a “roadshow.” Only a smaller group of board members, who were part of a pricing committee — including Khosrowshahi; Ronald Sugar, who is also Uber’s chairman; and David Trujillo of TPG — focused on the IPO, these people said.
Another person close to the board said that all board members were invited to attend pricing discussions and IPO event planning, and that all materials from the pricing committee were made available. Some members were more active than others, the person said.
In late April, Uber proposed a price range of $44 to $50 a share for its offering, putting its valuation at $80 billion to $91 billion, below the $100 billion it had floated just a few weeks earlier.
The company soon hit other obstacles. President Donald Trump tweeted this month that he wanted to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, unsettling global stock markets. The day before Uber priced its IPO, Lyft reported a $1.14 billion loss for its first quarter, renewing questions about the health of ride-hailing businesses.
Uber’s executives, board and bankers discussed the final pricing of the stock sale on May 9. Several board members pushed for a price at the higher end of the $44- to $50-a-share range, said the people briefed on the situation.
But Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and others agreed that it needed to be lower, they said. The list of orders from potential investors, known in Wall Street jargon as the “book,” showed that the most desirable investors — the big asset managers who were most likely to hold on to the shares, even in tough times — were interested only in the lower price.
The final price: $45 a share.
That evening, Khosrowshahi and his management team gathered in New York at Daniel, a Michelin star restaurant a few blocks east of Central Park, at a “pricing dinner” hosted by Morgan Stanley. The mood was upbeat, according to two people familiar with the evening.
But the next morning, that mood had changed. Uber executives arrived at the New York Stock Exchange, where the company was listing its shares. Before the first trade, monitors that lined the exchange floor displayed how Uber’s stock was likely to fall — flashing up $45, $44, before finally opening at $42. The chatter quieted.
The rest of the day was little better. Uber’s stock never rose close to its $45 offering price. As the so-called stabilization agent, charged with helping trading in Uber stock, Morgan Stanley made some moves to support the shares, according to people with knowledge of the matter. But by the end of the day, while the S&P 500 closed up, Uber’s stock remained down.
On Thursday, Uber closed at $43, more than 4% below its offering price.
2019 New York Times News Service
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