Photo by Fabrizio Gandolfo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Norwegian Air is canceling 85 percent of its flights and temporarily laying off 90 percent of its workforce, leaving 7,300 hundred employees without jobs amid a pandemic threatening lives and global markets.
Norwegian’s CEO Jacob Schram said in a press release that “what our industry is now facing is unprecedented and critical as we are approaching a scenario where most of our airplanes will be temporarily grounded.”
The airline said its main priority is to keep this week’s scheduled flights on the books to return customers to “home destinations” and said it will work with authorities to arrange flights to get stranded passengers out of locations, if that becomes necessary.
Employees will be affected across the board — pilots, cabin crew, maintenance and administrative staff are all part of the temporary layoff.
Norwegian joins airlines around the world making significant changes to staffing, flight schedules and business operations. Delta Airlines will cut its flight capacity by 40 percent, joining United Airlines, which yesterday said it would cut flights by 50 percent. Southwest said it is “seriously considering” cuts to domestic travel and Virgin Atlantic asked staff to take eight weeks of unpaid leave. UK Airlines have also called for a bailout to survive the crisis.
Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the biggest food companies on the planet. One of the companies will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. When the company formed in 2015 it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale, but shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking to introduce healthier options at the table. Kraft Heinz's net revenue has fallen every year since 2020.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
