It’s not often that an entire economy is thrown off course by a single corporate event. But that’s what appears to have happened in Iceland. The recent bankruptcy of Wow Air has delivered such a blow to the Icelandic tourist industry, and the wider economy, that the central bank Wednesday cut its main interest rate by half a point to 4%. It also said that the economy is now set to contract 0.4%, compared with a previous estimate for growth of 1.8%. The announcement makes clear how badly Wow Air’s failure has hurt Iceland, which has also suffered from a disastrous fishing season. The airline had helped turn tourism into Iceland’s biggest cash cow, fuelling a boom that dragged the nation out of its financial collapse more than a decade ago. Its demise in March spelled an abrupt end to that boom. <br/>
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An Italian man launched into an angry tirade when his Ryanair flight landed in Bari, southern Italy, instead of his destination hundreds of miles away on the island of Sardinia The man, who had a plane ticket for Cagliari, the capital of the Italian island, railed against flight assistants claiming it was their responsibility to stop him during boarding at Pisa Airport. The passenger said he only noticed he was on the wrong flight when the plane started its descent into Bari. "He said the landscape was different from Cagliari. Then he started insulting the flight assistants arguing they let him pass through the gates," another passenger said. It is unclear how the mishap happened. Ryanair said they are investigating the incident. <br/>
The leader of an ill-fated effort to revive the People Express airline has been indicted on fraud and tax evasion charges. Michael D. Morisi was arrested Tuesday, accused of defrauding creditors of nearly US$448,000. An indictment says he used most of the money to pay himself and other airline executives months after the airline folded. The indictment also says the former executive director of Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport, Ken Spirito, arranged for public funds to guarantee $5m in credit for the airline. The company folded in 2014 and stopped paying the $4.5m it owed TowneBank under the credit line. The airport was left to foot the bill, which taxpayers ultimately got stuck for. Spirito was arrested Monday and charged with violating federal finance laws. <br/>
SpiceJet said it expects its Boeing 737 Max 8 jets to be back in the air by July, in a vote of confidence for the plane. SpiceJet is one of Boeing’s biggest global customers for the 737 Max 8 jets, with 13 in its fleet and a pending order for 192 more Max aircraft by 2025 as it plans to expand its capacity in the world’s fastest-growing domestic aviation market. “We expect that they will fly in July,” SpiceJet chairman and MD Ajay Singh said:. “We are confident that it’s a great plane. It’s a completely safe aircraft, so we are waiting for the regulators to take that view.” Global regulators are meeting Thursday to consider when the Boeing 737 Max can return to the skies following crashes that have undermined the reputation of the aircraft maker. <br/>