The CEO to watch today to determine the return of air travel
United Airlines President Scott Kirby speaks on June 5, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois.
Kamil Krzaczynski | Reuters
Are you trying to measure the rebound in air travel? Look at United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby. A year ago, when the president of the airline in Chicago was Kirby, perhaps the most pessimistic airline chief about the Covid-19 pandemic, who warned investors at a JP Morgan industry conference in March that the airline was preparing for ‘ a sharp drop in revenue.
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 wage support last year, Kirby and other United executives warned about the challenges ahead. After Congress approved a third round of payroll aid last week, Kirby adopted a more optimistic tone, saying in a LinkedIn post that ‘our teams will be able to stay abreast of their training and be ready to to meet the expected future demand. ‘
Kirby, who became CEO last May, returns to the JP Morgan Industrial Conference today and presents ET at 9:40 p.m.
–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 the development of the coronavirus in Europe probably no longer predicts what will happen in the US a few weeks later, unlike earlier phases of the pandemic.
“Everything that happened in Europe finally happened here. Now I think the tables have turned. We are ahead of Europe,” the former FDA chief said.
Some European countries, such as Italy, are imposing stricter public health restrictions due to an increase in Covid infections. However, Gottlieb noted that the US has a larger proportion of its population receiving at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, compared to the member states of the European Union and the European Economic Area.
“The fact that we have not yet seen the rise of the coronavirus … even though B117 is becoming the prevailing strain in the United States, I think, is good,” Gottlieb said.
–Kevin Stankiewicz
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a contributor to CNBC and is a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, the compiler of genetic testing Tempus and the biotechnology company Illumina. Gottlieb also serves as co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean’s Healthy Sail Panel.
Hundreds of Tesla workers are positive for Covid
Public health data revealed over the weekend that hundreds of Tesla employees tested positive for coronavirus at the factory in Fremont, California.
Emily Glazer, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and Dan Primack, business editor for Axios, joined CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss the development as well as other major Tesla headlines.
European Union countries clash over unequal distribution of vaccines
Six European Union countries – Austria, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia – have expressed concern over how the bloc is spreading the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines after AstraZeneca again cut its delivery targets.
They are concerned that, without any changes, some EU countries ‘will be able to achieve herd immunity within a few weeks, while others will lag far behind’, they said in a letter.
Their complaint follows news that AstraZeneca will not meet its delivery targets in the coming months. The Swedish-British pharmaceutical firm 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 during the second quarter.
These numbers are lower than the block expected to receive.
–Silvia Amaro
Facebook to label all posts about Covid vaccines
Facebook’s logo is displayed on a phone screen and keyboard.
Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto via Getty Images
Facebook will begin adding labels about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines and will soon label all postings about the shots, Reuters reports.
The social media giant has been criticized, according to Reuters, for having spread false information about the vaccines on the company’s platforms.
Facebook said it is also launching a tool in the U.S. to give users information on where to get Covid vaccines and add a Covid information area to Instagram, the wire service said.
–Terri Cullen
Ireland, Netherlands joins the growing list of countries to suspend the use of 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 suspended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of blood clots in some vaccines. Thailand last week became the first Asian country to stop using the jab.
The Dutch government has said the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will only be used nationwide until at least March 29, while Ireland said earlier in the day that the shot had been temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure.
The World Health Organization has sought to reduce ongoing safety issues, saying last week that there is no link between the shot and an increased risk of developing blood clots.
—Sam Meredith
JetBlue says bookings increase as industry takes a turn
According to JetBlue Airways, demand for air travel has increased in recent weeks, a trend that will help reduce airline losses as passenger numbers climb to the highest levels in a year.
“While booking trends remain volatile, JetBlue has seen an improvement in booking through leisure and visiting friends and family over the past few weeks …” JetBlue said in a submission.
New York-based JetBlue says its EBITDA is expected to be negative $ 490 million and $ 540 million, down from a previous estimate of losses of $ 525 million to as much as $ 625 million. Revenue from the first quarter will continue to decline by 61% to 64% from 2019 in the first quarter of the year, it is estimated, after previously predicting a decline of as much as 70%.
JetBlue shares are up 4.7% in pre-market trading.
–Leslie Josephs