Business - Page 2

Holiday flight cancellations soar with Covid-19 disruptions and bad weather

By Gregory Wallace and Matt McFarland, Thousands of US flights were canceled over New Year’s weekend as a combination of Covid-19 disruptions and wintry weather slowed travel. Flight cancellations have trended up steadily since Christmas Eve, hitting a new peak Saturday as millions travel over the holidays. Data from the website FlightAware shows more than 4,731 flights were canceled globally on Saturday — by far the largest day of cancellations since the meltdown began Christmas Eve. At least 2,739 of the cancellations were within, into or out of the United States. Sunday cancellations in the United States already number 2,600 flights, FlightAware showed, and global cancellations reached

Apple closes all New York stores to browsing as Omicron cases surge

By Jordan Valinsky, Apple has closed all of its New York store locations to browsing because of a surge in Covid-19 cases. The roughly one dozen locations in the city will be limited to picking up online orders and walk-in services such as Genius Bar support. “We regularly monitor conditions and we will adjust both our health measures and store services to support the wellbeing of customers and employees,” the company said in a statement. Two weeks ago, Apple once again began requiring anyone inside its US retail stores to wear a mask as concerns mount over rising Covid-19 cases and the

Travel nightmare continues: Another 2,200 flights canceled Tuesday

By Chris Liakos and Sonnet Swire, Thousands of flights have been canceled over the past several days as Covid cases surge across the globe. On Tuesday, another 2,200 flights have been canceled, with nearly 700 of them within, into or out of the United States, according to tracking website FlightAware. More than 2,000 flights have been delayed. Monday was an even bigger nightmare for travelers, with more than 2,800 flights canceled, and 11,000 delayed. Globally, airlines canceled more than 6,000 flights on Christmas Eve, Christmas and the day after Christmas. In the United States, more than 1,200 flights were canceled and more

A political fight over 5G could upend air travel: What you should know

By Brian Fung, From mask requirements to waived change fees, the pandemic has dramatically changed what it’s like to fly. But beginning early next year, even more changes could be coming to air travel — ones that have nothing to do with the coronavirus. These changes could lead to flight delays or diversions affecting tens of millions of passengers across hundreds of thousands of flights, according to aviation industry estimates. It all comes down to a political fight over 5G, the next-generation cell service technology that’s begun to be supported in the latest smartphones. Here’s what you need to know: The

Boeing and Airbus want Biden administration to delay rollout of 5G cell service, citing safety concerns

By Pete Muntean, The world’s biggest commercial airplane manufacturers are telling the Biden Administration to delay the rollout of 5G cell service next month. Boeing CEO David Calhoun and Airbus Americas CEO Jeffery Knittel sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to say the January 5 rollout could cause interference that could “adversely affect the ability of aircraft to safely operate.” At issue are instruments known as radar altimeters that pilots of commercial airliners need to make safe landings in low visibility conditions. An industry analysis says interference could affect hundreds of thousands of flights each year, delaying flights or causing

Black tech entrepreneurs struggle to find funding in Britain. Now they’re looking abroad

By WalĂ© Azeez, Black tech entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom say they have to rely on foreign investors to get their businesses off the ground. More than a year after the Black Lives Matter protests prompted the UK government to investigate discrimination against Black business owners, British venture capital firms continue to neglect Black and ethnic minority founders despite a booming startup scene. “It is clear that the UK is not the place to try and get funding for your startup,” says Rich Serunjogi, founder of Business Score, which matches e-commerce companies with working capital financing. “Only the very best [UK] VCs are interested.

Two major airline CEOs question the need for masks on planes

By Chris Isidore, The CEOs of two of the nation’s major airlines say they don’t think wearing masks on planes does much to help limit exposure to Covid. The comments from American Airlines CEO Doug Parker — the nation’s largest carrier — and Southwest CEO Gary Kelly came during a hearing about the financial support that airlines received from the federal government in 2020 and 2021. But the topic of masks arose via a question from Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on the Senate committee holding the hearing. “I think the case is very strong that masks don’t add much, if anything, in

‘Boost everybody.’ CEOs should mandate boosters before returning office workers, Andy Slavitt says

By Matt Egan, The Omicron coronavirus variant will cause a “winter wave” that will complicate the return of workers to offices in the United States, according to Andy Slavitt, a former senior pandemic adviser to President Joe Biden. “The beginning of 2022 will be rough,” Slavitt told CNN in a phone interview. Scientists are still studying the characteristics of Omicron, but early research suggests symptoms may be less severe, though the new variant may spread more rapidly. “The problem with Omicron is hotspots will be easier to generate,” Slavitt said. “The things that might have been two or three people getting

A record number of journalists are in prison right now, according to press freedom report

By Kerry Flynn, A staggering 293 journalists were imprisoned in 2021, according to an annual census by nonprofit group Committee to Protect Journalists. That tally is up from 280 journalists in 2020 and is the highest number CPJ has ever reported since it started keeping track of the data in 1992. For the sixth straight year, the number of journalists imprisoned exceeded 250, according to CPJ. “This is a stark reminder of a continuing trend of creeping authoritarianism around the world,” CPJ’s Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney told CNN Business. “Governments are becoming more and more intolerant of independent reporting,

America keeps adding jobs but we’re still not back to normal

By Anneken Tappe, The US jobs recovery has picked up steam again in the final months of the year, bringing some good news in the face of persistently rising prices and a new Covid variant. Economists polled by Refinitiv expect another sizable jobs gain in Friday’s November employment report — 550,000 positions. If that holds true, it would be the biggest monthly gain since July, when more than a million jobs were added. But even so, America’s labor market is still not back to its pre-pandemic strength. If the forecasts are right, the nation would still be down more than 3.5 million jobs compared to February 2020. On

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