Several US companies, including American Airlines Group, General Motors and Microsoft Corp, on Monday build on their commitment to clean energy by joining billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy program. The initiative aims to boost development of technologies to achieve the target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Its catalyst program aims to raise money from governments, philanthropists and companies to make capital investments to bring down the cost of clean technology. American Airlines said in a statement it has invested $100m. The program will initially focus on four key areas: direct air capture, green hydrogen, long-duration energy storage and sustainable aviation fuel.<br/>
oneworld
US Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who has been outspoken on antitrust issues, expressed concern to the Transportation Department on Friday that a partnership between American Airlines and JetBlue would lead to higher airfares. The airlines' "Northeast Alliance" partnership was announced in July 2020 and approved by the Transportation Department six months later, shortly before the end of the Trump administration. The codeshare agreement allows American and JetBlue to sell each other's flights in their New York-area and Boston networks and link frequent flyer programs, in a move aimed at giving them more muscle to compete with United and Delta in the US Northeast. "I write with grave concerns that the recent joint partnership between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways will lead to anticompetitive coordination at key air traffic hubs and result in the long-term inflation of airfares and related costs for airline passengers," Blumenthal said in a letter to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Blumenthal urged a "full public interest review and investigation of the Northeast Alliance cooperative agreement," noting that President Joe Biden had signed an executive order on competition in July. Blumenthal cited the White House as saying that the top four airlines had nearly two-thirds of the US domestic market. "I am concerned that the Northeast Alliance is exactly the kind of arrangement that has led us to this point and that will lead to even further consolidation in an already overly concentrated industry. Under the circumstances, this arrangement deserves more scrutiny," he wrote. In a statement, JetBlue said the partnership allowed the two airlines to give Delta and United real competition.<br/>
British Airways owner IAG is not planning to raise billions of euros from shareholders to get the company through the extended COVID-19 crisis, its CE Luis Gallego said. "We do not see the necessity to do a rights issue and are not considering it," Gallego told the newspaper adding that the company was talking through "different options" with banks. The comments come after media speculation about the company's plans to shore up its finances. In May, IAG announced plans to raise E825m from a convertible bond to bolster its balance sheet. Last year, the group launched a E2.75b capital raising. Gallego noted that the group had high debts but also had strong liquidity of E10.2b, Times reported. "We have revolving credit facilities, we are analysing other ways of financing the group so we have alternatives before we [consider] another rights issue," he told the newspaper adding that repaying debts will be group's priority. Earlier this month, British airline easyJet opted to raise $1.7b from shareholders to recover from the pandemic and declined a takeover approach from Wizz Air. <br/>