The CEO will watch today to assess the return of air travel
United Airlines President Scott Kirby speaks in Chicago, Illinois, June 5, 2019.
Kamil Krzaczynski | Reuters
Are you trying to measure your return on air travel? Follow United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby. A year ago, Kirby, then president of the Chicago Airline, was probably the airline’s most pessimistic head of the Covid-19 pandemic, warning investors at a JP Morgan industry conference in March that the carrier was preparing for a sudden decline in income.
The declines even exceeded Kirby’s expectations. US airlines lost a total of $ 35 billion last year.
After Congress approved each of the two rounds of government payroll support last year, Kirby and other United executives warned of future challenges. After Congress approved a third round of paychecks last week, Kirby seemed to take a more optimistic tone, saying in a LinkedIn post that “our teams will be able to stay current in their training and ready to meet future expectations.” ”.
Kirby, who became CEO of United in May, returns today to the JP Morgan industry conference, presenting at 9:40 am ET
–Leslie Josephs
The European Covid case no longer predicts what the United States can expect, says Gottlieb
Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that the evolution of the coronavirus in Europe probably no longer predicts what will happen a few weeks later in the United States, unlike the earlier stages of the pandemic.
“Everything that happened in Europe has finally happened here. Now I think they’re back. We’re ahead of Europe,” the former FDA chief said.
Some European nations, such as Italy, are putting back stricter public health restrictions in response to an increase in Covid infections. However, Gottlieb noted that the US has a higher share of its population receiving at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine compared to the Member States of the European Union and the European Economic Area.
The fact that we haven’t seen an increase in coronavirus growth … even though B117 is becoming the predominant strain in the United States, I think it’s auspicious, Gottlieb said.
–Kevin Stankiewicz
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and a member of the boards of Pfizer, the Tempus genetic testing start-up and the biotechnology company Illumina. Gottlieb is also co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean’s Healthy Sail Panel.
Hundreds of Tesla workers tested positive for Covid
Public health data was released over the weekend that hundreds of Tesla workers tested positive for coronavirus at the Fremont plant in California.
Emily Glazer, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and Dan Primack, a business editor at Axios, joined CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss development as well as other important Tesla headlines.
European Union countries face unequal distribution of vaccines
Six EU countries – Austria, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia – have expressed concern about how the bloc is distributing Covid-19 vaccines after AstraZeneca again reduced its delivery targets.
They are concerned that, without any change, some EU countries “could gain immunity from the herd in a few weeks, while others will lag far behind,” they said in a letter.
Their complaint stems from the news that AstraZeneca will not meet its delivery targets in the coming months. The Swedish-British pharmaceutical company has confirmed to CNBC that it will deliver 30 million doses to the EU by the end of the first quarter and another 70 million doses in the second quarter.
These figures are below what the block expected to receive.
–Silvia Amaro
Facebook to start tagging all posts about Covid vaccines
Facebook logo displayed on the phone screen and keypad.
Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto by Getty Images
Facebook will start adding tags to posts about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines and will soon tag all posts about photos, Reuters reported.
The social media giant has been criticized for allowing misinformation about vaccines to spread on the company’s platforms, according to Reuters.
Facebook said it is also launching a tool in the US to provide users with information about where Covid vaccines are administered and to add a Covid information area to its Instagram photo-sharing site, the wire service said.
–Terri Cullen
Ireland and the Netherlands join the growing list of countries suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine
Ireland and the Netherlands have become the last countries to suspend the use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for safety reasons.
Several European countries, including Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Bulgaria, have already stopped using the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of blood clots in some vaccinated people. Thailand became the first Asian country to stop using the jab last week.
The Dutch government said the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine would not be used nationally until at least March 29, while Ireland said earlier that day that it had temporarily suspended the shooting as a precautionary measure.
The World Health Organization has tried to downplay ongoing safety concerns, saying last week there was no link between the shooting and an increased risk of developing blood clots.
“Sam Meredith.”
JetBlue says bookings are on the rise as the industry turns a corner
JetBlue Airways says demand for air travel has risen in recent weeks, a trend that will help reduce carrier losses as passenger numbers rise to one-year highs.
“Although booking trends remain turbulent, in recent weeks JetBlue has seen an improvement in bookings made by friends and relatives for leisure and visiting …,” JetBlue says in a file.
New York-based JetBlue says EBITDA is expected to be negative at $ 490 million and $ 540 million, down from a previous loss estimate of $ 525 million to $ 625 million. Revenues in the first quarter will continue to decline by 61% to 64% compared to 2019 in the first quarter of the year, he estimated, after previously forecasting a decline of up to 70%.
JetBlue shares rose 4.7% in premarket trading.
–Leslie Josephs