Business

Confidential notes seen by Sky News reveal European Union officials think a Brexit deal is 95% agreed – but show the extent of anxiety over the potential impact if negotiations break down. The notes come from a meeting of the most senior diplomats in Brussels on Friday morning, when they were briefed about the state

Britain’s biggest airport is to furlough its entire senior management team apart from its chief executive and pave the way for more permanent job losses, underlining its pessimism about the aviation industry’s short-term recovery prospects. Sky News has seen emails sent by Heathrow executives on Friday which detail plans for a new voluntary redundancy scheme

Public sector net borrowing is estimated to have been £22.3bn in October – the sixth-highest borrowing in any month since monthly records began in 1993. The figure, from the Office for National Statistics, means that public sector net debt stood at £2.076trn by the end of October – or 100.8% of GDP, a level not

UK households are expected to have spent £6,600 less this year after the pandemic slashed demand for holidays, eating out and transport, according to new research. In total, consumer spending for 2020 is on course to be £183.6bn, or 14.9%, lower in 2020 compared to the previous year, according to consumer analysts Mintel. Bucking the

Marks & Spencer is planning to open most of its stores until midnight in the run-up to Christmas to allow shoppers and staff “the time and space they need to social distance”. M&S said the three days from December 21-23, expected to be its busiest days, would see its “longest ever store opening hours”. It

Could it be that two years of agony for Boeing are finally over? The aerospace giant – America’s biggest exporter – has been in a state of turmoil since being forced to ground the 737 MAX after crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people. The longest grounding in commercial aviation

Regulators have cleared Boeing’s 737 MAX to fly again, 20 months after the fleet was grounded globally following two fatal crashes. The decision was announced by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) just months after a highly critical congressional report accused the watchdog itself of contributing to a “horrific culmination” of failures before the accidents.

Companies recommended by MPs, peers and advisers were given priority to win government contracts as it scrambled to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, the public spending watchdog has found. A National Audit Office (NAO) investigation into pandemic procurement concludes that normal standards of transparency were waived as departments awarded 8,600 contracts worth £18bn to tackle

EasyJet has revealed the first annual loss in its 25-year history of £1.27bn – a result of the virus crisis turbulence that grounded airlines globally. The no-frills carrier said the total loss before tax figure for the year to the end of September compared to profits of £430m in the previous 12 months. However, it

Some British ports will find it “impossible” to carry out checks on fresh food and plant imports in the event of a no-deal Brexit, industry groups have warned parliament. Ports around the UK face fundamental changes to customs arrangements in just 45 days’ time when the EU transition period ends on January 1. Deal or

Global stock markets are rallying sharply after positive trial results from a second potential coronavirus vaccine lifted hopes over the battle to defeat the pandemic. The FTSE 100 jumped by 2%, or more than 100 points, after interim data from a US-developed drug produced by Moderna showed it to be 94.5% effective against COVID-19. Markets

One of Britain’s biggest listed property groups is facing demands from an American hedge fund to break itself up and hand over a board seat in the latest example of shareholder activism targeting a major UK company. Sky News has learnt that Countryside Properties, which has a market capitalisation of over £2bn, has been told

China and 14 other countries agreed to set up the world’s largest trading bloc – accounting for almost a third of all global economic activity. Many in Asia hope the pact will hasten recovery from the shock economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed virtually on Sunday at

The high street tycoon Sir Philip Green is this weekend trying to secure tens of millions of pounds in fresh funding to keep his TopShop empire afloat. Sky News has learnt that Arcadia Group has approached several potential lenders about borrowing roughly £30m to prop up the business after seeing its pre-Christmas trading plans wrecked

Greggs has announced plans to cut more than 800 jobs as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The boss warned that the bakery chain “will not be profitable as a business” if sales continue at the rates they have been in lockdown. In a statement posted on its employee information website earlier this week,

The founder of the UK’s largest independent travel firm, who saved thousands of Thomas Cook staff from losing their jobs when the holiday giant went bust, has died. John Hays, who started the company in 1980 out of the back of his mother’s childrenswear shop in County Durham, collapsed on Friday while working at its