Short Takes
September 4th 2020
Thai Airways International (THAI) has opened a restaurant at its Bangkok head office serving the general public with food prepared by chefs from its catering unit. Read More » Entry to the restaurant, which is open from Wednesday to Friday from 0900-1400, is via a set of aircraft stairs, with diners sitting on repurposed cabin seats and eating off tables made from aircraft parts such as engines and tyres. THAI Catering managing director, Varangkana Luerojvong, said this week the company decided to open the restaurant following the success of its initiative in July and August selling prepared meals to the public.
Leasing company BOC Aviation said in a regulatory filing to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong it had terminated a commitment to purchase 18 A320neo family aircraft. The deal to buy the 18 aircraft, due for delivery in 2022 and 2023, was announced in December 2019.
Malaysia Airports said this week it would offer retail tenants a rental reduction of up to 30% as part of a new retail model, the equivalent to 45 million ringgit (US$11 million) for participating tenants. Malaysia Airports group CEO, Dato’ Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh, said the new rental model would "help facilitate business recovery for our existing tenants and provide them with some breathing space while we undergo a gradual recovery in terms of traffic numbers”. Malaysia Airports also announced a relief package for approximately 650 retail tenants, who will receive a 50% rental reduction for six months in 2020.
The government of India has extended the deadline for expressions of interest (EOI) to buy Air India by another two months, to October 30. The date change, the fourth time the government has pushed back the sale process, was due to requests received from interested bidders "in view of the prevailing situation arising out of COVID-19", India's Ministry of Finance said in a statement. Submissions of EOIs to purchase the government-owned carrier and 50% of the Air India SATS Airport Services company were previously due on August 31.
Brazil-headquartered Embraer said this week it would cut about 900 jobs due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the aborted partnership with Boeing. The company said the job losses represented about 4.5% of its global workforce. "The objective is to ensure Embraer's sustainability and engineering capacity," Embraer said in a statement.
Airbus said this week its Satair subsidiary had officially taken full control of the A220's global material support and services. The transition of the materials servicing work from the Airbus Canada Limited Partnership to Satair began on July 1. “All A220 customers will benefit from the same level of service and global network offered by Satair on all other Airbus platforms," Airbus senior vice president for A220 customer services, customer satisfaction and product policy, Rob Dewar, said in a statement.
