Leeds Bradford - General Thread

[Len Fish]

On the face of it it doesn’t seem unreasonable that he’s asking the profitable companies to dip into their own pockets first but I suspect he’s only put back the time when a Government bale out is inevitable.

 

[Jerry]

That’s an argument that insults every air traveller East of the Pennines. It’s not like we’ve got a great public transport service to get us to Manchester Birmingham or even Newcastle, so we’ll all be driving our electric cars there by the sound of it.

Well that's the argument people make especially as most people drive to airports. Airports like MAN and BHX and LHR aren't that far of a drive for the bulk of the population which I've also seen as part of the argument for Cardiff not to exist.

 

[lbaspotter]

Well it would seem some bulls--t is being spread about by the press as regards the Government not supporting UK aviation, that's if you are to believe what the union BALPA are saying right now

They have just released the following statement.

Pilots union says Government support for aviation is still on the table ⋆ BALPA ⋆ The Voice of UK Pilots

The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) says talks are ongoing with airlines and the Government to look at how best to support the aviation industry though the current coronavirus crisis.

www.balpa.org

I hope those whom have had dig at the government in the past 24 hours over this might now wind there necks in!

 

[Aviador]

Every sector wants their area protected properly but the stark reality of the current situation is the government can only do so much. Take the self employed for example, whilst not all self employed will abuse the tax system, a great number of them will avoid paying tax during normal times. So you could argue that in not contributing to the tax system sufficiently, should they really be eligible for any help?

 

[Jerry]

Tell him to bugger off....he has houses all over the world, private island and wants us the UK tax payer to give him money...no give it to the NHS who actually deserve it. He’s a resident in Monaco (tax purposes), sure I bumped into him at the local Aldi there last year. He was buying some veg and I bought a 2 man tent and mig welder.

I read somewhere that Branson was going to put over £200 million into Virgin.

 

[twevsmiff]

Airport closing at 1700 local today.
Assume this will be every day now as we only have 1 and some times 2 scheduled flights per day and they are both in morning

 

[Severn]

It is easy to use Richard Branson as a scapegoat here, but I'm not sure if it's that useful. Remember he is the founder of the Virgin Group which has over 70,000 employees worldwide. He also founded Virgin Atlantic, but he is not the CEO nor Chairman of the airline which has it's own corporate structure, and he will of course not be the sole decision maker.

The latest news regarding him reports that he is investing $250M of his money into the group:

Richard Branson to invest $250m in Virgin empire
Billionaire moves to protect jobs as talks continue on airline industry bailout

Richard Branson, the British billionaire, has committed to investing $250m into his Virgin empire to protect jobs as the UK government draws up plans to take equity stakes in airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, to counter the effects of the coronavirus crisis.
Sir Richard wrote in a blog post on Sunday that the chances of securing a widespread economic recovery would “depend critically upon governments around the world” implementing support programmes.
It comes as talks between airlines and the UK government have continued this weekend as the latter draws up plans for a politically difficult bailout of a sector that has been blighted by a virtual shutdown of international travel.
The Financial Times revealed on Saturday that the government was drafting a scheme that could see it buy equity stakes in carriers and other companies hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, after warnings that the economic packages it had announced would not be enough to save them.
Airlines are expecting to hold another meeting with the government on Monday. One official said there would be daily talks with the industry this week.
The official confirmed on Sunday that talks were going on about “something more bespoke”, which could see the government end up with large equity stakes in some of the airlines. But the official added that “we are not there yet” in terms of the final shape of any rescue package.
If enacted, the plans under discussion would see the UK taxpayer inject billions of pounds into companies in exchange for shares that would eventually be sold back to private investors, according to three people briefed on the proposals.
One of the people said that the likelihood of taking outright equity positions in the airlines was dependent on the length of time that the global aviation industry was effectively shut down. More conventional rescue measures like loans, guarantees and tax relief would not be sufficient if the shutdown were to drag on for many months, they said.
They added that the government could provide debt to the airlines that would subsequently convert into equity, making the taxpayer a substantial shareholder in the airlines.
But this prospect has been made more likely after the outlook for the airline industry dramatically worsened over the past week.
Dubai-based Emirates on Sunday became the latest carrier to warn that it will almost entirely ground its passenger aircraft from Wednesday. Both easyJet and Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost airline, have announced similar moves, which are expected to come into effect from Tuesday.
Carriers are now preparing for a lengthy shutdown in air travel across much of the world. Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, on Friday told the Financial Times that the airline expected a best-case scenario of no air travel of at least two to three months. But he admitted that “honestly none of us have any idea”.
Two airline executives said they were, for now, focused on using help from the government on payroll support which would help carriers deal with short-term cash issues.
Virgin Atlantic has been one of the most vocal UK airlines in calling for state aid. Sir Richard, the chairman of Virgin Group which owns a majority stake in Virgin Atlantic, last week urged the government to provide up to £7.5bn of emergency state support to rescue the UK aviation industry.
On his blog, Sir Richard said that his businesses, which span industries such as travel, leisure and wellness, were in a “massive battle to survive”.
“Our airlines have had to ground almost all their planes; our cruise line has had to postpone its launch; our health clubs and hotels have had to close their doors and all bookings to our holiday company have stopped,” he wrote.

 

[Heathrowflyer]

Is this in lieu of taxes?

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Its like a scratched recored repeating itself...WTF does he fly?

In

Here we go again. Didn't you say you had 5 up and coming flights booked? How are your airline shares performing during this crisis? I guess your gas guzzling road haulage business wont be doing very well at the moment? At least the emissions from the road haulage businesses will be greatly reduced during this time. Something else the government will need to address to get on top of emissions.

In my defence, my warehouse and transport business at the moment working flat out delivery vital NHS equipment and PPE equipment as we have done for decades.
In addition its working 24/7 to supply supermarkets with food from the manufacturers we work for.
My son is a Funeral Director, his vehicles also chugging out fumes, sad you feel both my vehicles and his should be removed from the road at this critical time or any other.
We have actually doubled the number of vehicles on the road in the last two weeks and we hopefully start individual food deliveries next week to those 1.5m people having no support,thanks lmust be given to the IT experts who hourly increasing the capacity of our systems.
I never check the price of my shares in circumstances like we have at present.
I am surprised at the cheap point scoring.

 

[Seasider]

I am predicting in 6/12 months time we will be discussing the Airport's successful attempts at getting us back to "normal". Jet2 will have taken the lead in leading the recovery, the 737Max will be flying in the skies and LBA management will be planning the new New Terminal they have just been given approval for.
That is not a dream or wishful thinking, I think it will happen.
Love to all forum members.

 

[stars&sids]

Well that's the argument people make especially as most people drive to airports. Airports like MAN and BHX and LHR aren't that far of a drive for the bulk of the population which I've also seen as part of the argument for Cardiff not to exist.

Sorry Jerry, I wasn’t intending to have a pop at you, but I just think that if that were any sort of official policy, it would be massively flawed given the population of the east Mids/ Yorkshire/ Lincolnshire etc.

 

[stars&sids]

Tell him to bugger off....he has houses all over the world, private island and wants us the UK tax payer to give him money...no give it to the NHS who actually deserve it. He’s a resident in Monaco (tax purposes), sure I bumped into him at the local Aldi there last year. He was buying some veg and I bought a 2 man tent and mig welder.

Go on then, I’m dying to know…… You were in Monaco buying a 2 man tent & a mig welder from Aldi. There must be a good tale behind that!

 

[Len Fish]

He’s a resident in Monaco (tax purposes), sure I bumped into him at the local Aldi there last year. He was buying some veg and I bought a 2 man tent and mig welder.

Speaking of Mig welders:
View attachment 16393

 

[Tarn Spotter]

I really am finding it hard to believe what you say to be totally honest.

My son the Funeral Director has a young son with serious lung and chest issues, 10 days ago he left his wife and 3 children to live on his own, all ready dealing with deceased who have contacted this awful disease .
I hold an Open Operating transport licence (including hazardous goods), I can carry goods for anyone, most licences only allow goods belonging to the company. I am running the maximum number allowed under my licence at the moment.
I not a Walter Mitty character making it up, I find it sad that people today feel able to write the remarks you did, without having a clue about me.
Going back to my original quote, I thought as a climate change denier it was good news that with only China stopping as a major industrial producer, air pollution levels had dropped off a cliff, especially when in 2008 Al Gore stated we would not get in to this position, even if the whole world closed down.
We now have vital facts to fight the likes of Greta and the BBC.
You may be on the different side of the arguement, but please act like an adult, Greta is a child, don't act like her.

 

[Aviador]

So in a desperate search for a good reason to support your green efforts I discovered a post from Andrew Neil on Twitter who was responding to a post made by Extinction Rebelion who had shared a post by the White Supremacy. The Tweet which referred to the industrial stoppages in China went on to say "Covid-19 was a cure for the world." The post which was originally shared by White Supremacy has now been deleted. So to summarise, the entire global economy has to crumble and we all have to go back to living in caves to reach the goal of these morons. This is why supporting anything other than a balanced and reasoned approach to climate change will never work, even if YOU believe it is the right thing to do.

 

[Heathrowflyer]

Astonishing...Branson asking Government for massive bailout.

 

[Aviador]

Astonishing...Branson asking Government for massive bailout.

We have a Vigin thread, any chance you can post that there?

 

[Heathrowflyer]

On an Lba point...do we know how many people are on zero hour contracts who work for the airport? How are they coping , hopefully OK? And for companies that serve the airport, food outlets etc? Given that much of the airport's work is seasonal I suspect quite a few. We really should think of them at these times.

 

[LBA4EVER]

On an Lba point...do we know how many people are on zero hour contracts who work for the airport? How are they coping , hopefully OK? And for companies that serve the airport, food outlets etc? Given that much of the airport's work is seasonal I suspect quite a few. We really should think of them at these times.

I know its a different industry but I feel for all the driving instructors out there. first off most will rent or have mortgages, secondly the majority drive round in cars which I feel are abit over the top for eg bmw, mercs, mpvs, whats wrong with a ford fiesta? these will all be leased or on finance costing hundreds a month, thirdly around 50% work for national d.schools where they pay these schools an amount each week for pupils and finally when we get back to some normality who will have the cash for driving lessons? Thankfully I use 2 slightly older paid for focus cars that are very reliable, no mortgage or rent and a fairly stable atm book of pupils for when I can start again. Im aware we have the self employed package on the way but no way will it cover all costs plus whats the economy going to be like after all this? Very interesting times ahead I feel.

 

[Heathrowflyer]

Is it just me or does anyone else think the airport's jinxed ? We get within a whisper of some great news then covid 19 hits followed, no doubt, by what they are saying will be the largest global recession in a century. It defies belief. Senior staff come and go...all promising fabulous things, before they mysteriously disappear into the ether, with someone else coming in, equally positive. It's darn ground hog day again. We just need some good luck for a change. Given that airports are now asking for bail outs now I'm worried about jobs and LBA's future.