Belarus carried out an act of “gangsterism” in diverting a Ryanair Holdings flight last month, Ireland’s Prime Minister, Micheal Martin, said. Belarus officials re-routed the flight from Athens to Vilnius so the passenger plane landed in Minsk, where authorities detained a dissident journalist who’s been outspoken in his criticism of President Alexander Lukashenko. Governments from Europe to the US rejected Lukashenko’s explanation that the detour under escort by a MiG-29 fighter jet was necessary because of a bomb threat that turned out to be fake. The “gangsterism we saw with the hijacking of a plane last month shows a regime which is the opposite of strong,” Martin said in a speech on Saturday. “It is too weak to respect its own people or to respect basic laws.” Ryanair has its headquarters in Ireland. The European Union and the UK responded with outrage to Lukashenko’s actions and banned Belarusian airlines from entering their airspace or landing at their airports. The EU is weighing further sanctions that may include targeting Belarus’s potash industry when the bloc’s foreign ministers meet June 21. <br/>
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Stobart Air has collapsed and will enter liquidation, becoming a casualty of the crisis that has engulfed aviation during the coronavirus pandemic. The charter carrier blamed the “continuing impact of the pandemic” as it announced it would cease operations after failing to find a buyer. Founded in 1970, using turboprop aircraft along Ireland’s west coast, Stobart grew to become a relatively significant player in European short-haul charter flying. Before the pandemic it operated more than 900 flights a week on 30 routes throughout western Europe, but it was forced to reduce its schedules by 94 per cent during the crisis. It has most recently only been operating regional flights on behalf of Aer Lingus. Esken, formerly known as Stobart Group, in April announced it would sell Stobart Air and Carlisle Lake District Airport to Isle of Man-based company Ettyl, but the following month warned the transaction was delayed following financing problems. On Saturday Stobart Air said the funding for the deal “is no longer in place and the new owner is now unable to conclude the transaction”. “Given the continued impact of the pandemic which has virtually halted air travel since March 2020 and in the absence of any alternative purchasers or sources of funding, the board of Stobart Air must take the necessary, unavoidable and difficult decision to seek to appoint a liquidator,” the company said. <br/>
India’s largest domestic airline says it is building a war chest of more than $1bn as it prepares for a third wave of Covid-19 infections, just as a brutal nationwide outbreak begins to recede. Ronojoy Dutta, CE of IndiGo Airlines parent InterGlobe Aviation, said he hoped the carrier’s business would return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year but warned that another wave of coronavirus in November could cause more disruption. The budget airline plans to raise Rs30b ($410m) through a qualified institutional placement, an equity raising tool used in India, to prepare for a worst-case scenario. IndiGo also plans to source approximately $600m through bank credit and sales and leasebacks of aircraft. “The doctors tell us there will be a third wave. There are no ifs and buts about it, and it will probably come around November, December,” said Dutta. “The board says ‘look, the environment is volatile . . . What if we go for another three months’ shutdown, then what? And the revenue is zero?’ It’s for that sort of disaster scenario that we are building insurance,” he added. Coronavirus cases have been declining steadily in India after hitting a peak in mid-May, though the country recorded a worldwide one-day record of more than 6,000 deaths this week, driven in part by the Delta variant first identified in the country. However, there are still about 100,000 cases reported daily and many countries have issued travel restrictions for passengers from India.<br/>