Short Takes
April 24th 2020
Qatar Airways said this week "mid-level employees and above" would take a temporary 50% deferral of their basic salary for three months. Read More » The Doha-headquartered carrier, which said it was operating an average of 60 scheduled passenger flights a day to about 40 destinations in addition to charter services, planned to credit salary back to staff "as soon as possible when circumstances allow".
The aircraft leasing arm of the China Development Bank [CDB] said this week it had cancelled an order for 29 737 MAX family aircraft and re-negotiated the delivery dates for some of the 70 of the type it had on order. CDB Aviation chairman, Wang Xuedong, told the Reuters news agency the decision to "re-calibrate" its 737 MAX order book, which originally stood at 101 aircraft, with two delivered, was made in "light of evolving aviation market dynamics".
Singapore Changi Airport's monthly traffic statistics published this past week stated the airport handled 1.65 million passengers in March, a 70.7% decline from 5.63 million in the prior corresponding period. The number of aircraft movements fell by 49.9%, to 16,200.
Leading Australian gateway, Sydney Airport, has scrapped its interim dividend and secured A$850 million (US$539.92 million) in additional liquidity in a mix of two and three year bank debt facilities. The fundraising is part of efforts to bolster the airport’s balance sheet. The privately-owned airport said it did not need to raise equity.
China Airlines staff will have their pay reduced by 15% to 25% for three months from May 1 as part of an agreement reached between the Taiwanese carrier and union groups, the CNA news agency reported this week. The deal included an agreement employees would take extra days off and a promise not to make redundancies, the report said.
