Day: March 29, 2020

    Airports will collapse within weeks without emergency funding for the firms that supply baggage handlers and refuel planes, the Government has been warned. Ground handling firms, which supply 25,000 staff in the UK to manage the most vital airport operations, last week told Transport Minister Kelly Tolhurst they are perilously close to collapse and are likely to run out of cash within six weeks. The UK's four biggest such companies Swissport, Menzies Aviation, WFS and Dnata are understood to have already laid off thousands of staff after suffering a 95 per cent drop in revenues due to 11 partial or full airport closures including Gatwick, Manchester, London City and Teesside International. Sources said unless the Treasury steps in with a rescue package the firms wi...

    Boris Johnson has warned the coronavirus crisis in the UK "will get worse" before it improves in a letter sent to households across the country. The PM also stresses the need to continue to stay indoors to support the NHS in the letter, which will land on £30million doorsteps. It comes as Professor Neil Ferguson, director of the Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College, told the Sunday Times total lockdown could last until June. The death toll in the UK passed 1,000 on Saturday, while more than 600,000 cases have been confirmed across the world.

    Boris Johnson has penned a letter to 30 million households across the UK urging people to obey the Covid-19 lockdown measures. The Prime Minister, who is self-isolating after testing positive for coronavirus, wrote in the letter that stricter restrictions could be put in place if required. The Government has committed to reviewing the lockdown in three weeks, and relaxing it if possible. Meanwhile, more than 17,000 people nationwide are now confirmed to have contracted Covid-19, with the death toll currently standing at 1,019. Coronavirus in numbers: UK deaths pass 1,000 Mr Johnson warned in his letter that "things will get worse before they get better" and reiterated people must stay at home in order to "protect the NHS and save lives". Here is the Prime Ministe...