The CEO to watch today to measure the recovery in air travel
Scott Kirby, president of United Airlines, speaking in Chicago, Illinois, June 5, 2019.
Kamil Krzaczynski | Reuters
Are you trying to measure air travel recovery? Check out Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines. A year ago, Kirby, the then president of the Chicago-based airline, was arguably the airline’s most pessimistic chief about the Covid-19 pandemic, warning investors at a JP Morgan industry conference in March that the airline was preparing for a sharp drop in income.
The drops even exceeded Kirby’s expectations. US airlines lost a total of $ 35 billion last year.
After Congress approved each of the two rounds of payroll by the government last year, Kirby and other United executives warned of the challenges ahead. After Congress approved a third round of payroll last week, Kirby appeared to be taking a more optimistic tone, saying in a LinkedIn post that “our teams will be able to keep up with their training and get ready. are to meet expected future demand ”.
Kirby, who became United’s CEO last May, returns to the JP Morgan industrials conference today, presenting at 9:40 a.m.ET.
Leslie Josephs
The European Covid case is no longer a prediction of what the US can expect, says Gottlieb
Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that coronavirus developments in Europe likely no longer predict what will happen in the US a few weeks later, unlike earlier stages of the pandemic.
“Everything that happened in Europe eventually happened here. Now I think the tables have turned. We are ahead of Europe,” said the former FDA chief.
Some European countries, such as Italy, are reintroducing stricter public health restrictions in response to an increase in Covid infections. However, Gottlieb noted that a higher proportion of the US population gets 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 the rise of the coronavirus … even as B117 becomes the most common strain in the United States, that bodes well,” said Gottlieb.
Kevin Stankiewicz
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a contributor to CNBC and serves on the boards of Pfizer, genetic testing start-up Tempus and biotech company Illumina. Gottlieb is also Co-Chairman of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean’s Healthy Sail Panel.
Hundreds of Tesla employees tested positive for Covid
Public health data released over the weekend that hundreds of Tesla employees tested positive for coronavirus at the company’s Fremont, California, plant.
Emily Glazer, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and Dan Primack, a corporate editor at Axios, joined CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss development and other big Tesla headlines.
Countries of the European Union clash over unequal vaccine distribution
Six countries of the European Union – Austria, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia – have expressed concerns about the way the block distributes Covid-19 vaccines after AstraZeneca again lowered its delivery targets.
They are concerned that without any change, some EU countries “could achieve herd immunity in a matter of weeks, while others would be far behind,” they said in a letter.
Their complaint follows news that AstraZeneca will not meet delivery targets in the coming months. The Swedish-British pharmaceutical company confirmed to CNBC that it will deliver 30 million doses to the EU by the end of the first quarter and a further 70 million doses in the second quarter.
These numbers are lower than what the block expected to receive.
Silvia Amaro
Facebook to label all posts about Covid vaccines
Facebook logo displayed on a phone screen and keyboard.
Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto via Getty Images
Facebook will start adding labels to messages about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines and will soon label all messages about the shots, Reuters reported.
The social media giant has been criticized for spreading misinformation about the vaccines on the company’s platforms, according to Reuters.
Facebook said it is also launching a tool in the US to provide users with information on where to get Covid vaccines and to add a Covid information area to its photo sharing site Instagram, the wire service said.
Terri Cullen
Ireland and the Netherlands join a growing list of countries that are discontinuing use of the AstraZeneca vaccine
Ireland and the Netherlands have become the latest countries to suspend the use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford due to safety concerns.
Several European countries, including Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Bulgaria, have already discontinued the use of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of blood clots in some vaccinated people. Thailand became the first Asian country to stop using the injection last week.
The Dutch government has said the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine will not be used nationwide until March 29, while Ireland said earlier in the day that it had temporarily discontinued the injection as a precaution.
The World Health Organization has tried to downplay the ongoing safety concerns, saying last week there is no link between the injection and an increased risk of developing blood clots.
– Sam Meredith
JetBlue says bookings are picking up as the industry turns a corner
JetBlue Airways says air travel demand has increased in recent weeks, a trend that will help reduce the airline’s losses as passenger numbers soar to the highest level in a year.
“While booking trends remain choppy, JetBlue has seen an improvement in the number of bookings through time off and visiting friends and relatives in recent weeks …” JetBlue said in an inquiry.
New York-based JetBlue says it expects its EBITDA to be $ 490 million and $ 540 million, down from a previous estimate of losses of $ 525 million to a whopping $ 625 million. First-quarter sales will still drop 61% to 64% in the first quarter of the year from 2019, after previously predicting a decline of a whopping 70%.
JetBlue shares are up 4.7% in premarket trading.
Leslie Josephs