Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Tuesday asked the CDC to halve its recommended quarantine time for vaccinated people who contract Covid-19, saying the current isolation period could negatively affect the airline’s operations. Bastian wrote to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky proposing a five-day recommended quarantine period for fully vaccinated individuals who contract Covid. The existing recommendation calls for a 10-day period of isolation. “Our employees represent an essential workforce to enable Americans who need to travel domestically and internationally,” wrote Bastian, along with the airline’s chief health officer Henry Ting and medical advisor Carlos del Rio. “With the rapid spread of the omicron variant, the 10-day isolation for those who are fully vaccinated may significantly impact our workforce and operations.” The letter comes as Covid cases spike and the heavily mutated omicron variant spreads rapidly, straining testing supplies ahead of the year-end holidays. Bastian, del Rio and Ting argued the CDC guidance was developed “in 2020 when the pandemic was in a different phase without effective vaccines and treatments.” The executives suggested individuals could end the isolation period earlier on the condition of a negative Covid test. “As part of this policy change, we would be interested to partner with CDC and collect empirical data,” they wrote in the letter, which Delta posted on its website. <br/>
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Indonesia's stock exchange has warned it might delist indebted national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, whose shares have been suspended since June after it defaulted on a $500m Islamic bond. The bourse late Monday cited rules that it could remove a company's shares if it is experiencing legal or financial trouble that will impact its business continuity, or if its shares have been suspended for at least 24 months. It did not explicitly say why Garuda was warned, but it noted that the airline's shares have been suspended for more than six months. read more Garuda is undergoing a Jakarta court-led debt restructuring after an information technology company petitioned the court over unpaid liabilities. The carrier's CE Irfan Setiaputra said Tuesday that the debt restructuring, known as PKPU, would allow it to settle its obligations and recover performance. "We are focusing on making our best efforts in accelerating performance recovery through the PKPU process in order to produce the best agreement in the settlement of business obligations, so that later Garuda shares can be traded as usual," Irfan said. Garuda's management held its first meeting with the creditor on Tuesday under the restructuring process, he added. Irfan on Monday said the airline planned to present to lessors and creditors restructuring proposals to renegotiate its $9.8b debt, including offering zero coupon bonds, selling new notes or issuing new stocks.<br/>