United vowed to step up its cost-cutting efforts after its cash burn rose in the fourth quarter because of interest payments on its mounting debt and the costs of reducing staff. Scott Kirby, CE at the US carrier, said the Covid-19 pandemic “has changed United Airlines forever” and that the company planned to make “structural reductions” that would make it “more profitable than ever”. The company said that in two years it will beat the 15.8% margin on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation that it posted in 2019, before the pandemic crushed demand for air travel. But in Q4 of 2020, the airline’s cash burn rose to $33m a day from $25m a day in Q3. The amount devoted to servicing debt and paying severance to employees rose from $4m to $10m a day. United cut 22,000 jobs because of the crisis, although it temporarily recalled some of those workers after US lawmakers in December approved a further $15bn in aid to the battered industry. The aid extends a programme to support payrolls until March 31. The carrier was the second US carrier after Delta to release results for 2020, a year that punished airlines worldwide as governments imposed restrictions on travel. United posted a net loss of $1.9b for Q4 and $7.1b for the whole of 2020. Operating revenue for Q4 increased to $3.4b from $2.5b in the previous quarter, as Americans chose to travel for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays despite government warnings. Revenue was still down 69% from Q4 of 2019. <br/>
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Passengers of Singapore Airlines and SilkAir flying out of Singapore, Jakarta and Medan will now be able to book pre-departure Covid-19 tests and receive their results via a one-stop online portal. The pilot programme launching on Wednesday is the SIA Group's latest effort to restore confidence in international travel, which has been decimated by the pandemic. If proven successful, the portal will be expanded to more cities in SIA and SilkAir's network over the next few months, the airline said. With the new portal, passengers can choose from a list of recognised testing facilities and book appointments for pre-departure Covid-19 PCR and serology tests up to 48 hours before their required testing window. Their test results will be delivered to them within 36 hours via the same portal and passengers can then present these results when checking in at the airport. Airport check-in staff and Singapore immigration authorities can use an accompanying quick response (QR) code to authenticate the results, SIA said.<br/>
A federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action accusing Japanese airline ANA of wrongly failing to issue refunds to passengers whose flights were canceled because of COVID-19. US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, California ruled Tuesday that the named plaintiff, Ashley Bugarin, had failed to allege facts supporting her claim that she was entitled to a refund even though she had not spoken to anyone at ANA to ask for one.<br/>