By: Pierre Fournier
Agenda: Billy Bishop Airport, CAE & Air Canada, Lloyd`s, Alstom, Arcelor Mital, SQDC, Airbus, Amazon, Bombardier, Market Review.
Resumption of activities at Billy Bishop Toronto Airport. According to CTV News, Billy Bishop Airport, located in downtown Toronto, reopened after more than 17 months of being inactive in its operations. Some flights have returned to service through Porter Airlines and Air Canada. Porter in particular, which has grounded all of its planes since March 21, 2020, is once again offering its routes between Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Thunder Bay. Later in September and October, other destinations will be added in Quebec, the Maritimes and the United States. Porter mentioned that 700 of its employees have returned back to work and that the number of staff will increase as more flights and destinations are added. Porter airline normally employs 1,400 people.
Partnership agreement between CAE and Air Canada. The five-year agreement includes the development and management of all Air Canada maintenance and engineering training. According to Canadian Aviation News, this exclusive agreement made CAE an approved Transport Canada training organization for the maintenance and engineering of Air Canada aircraft. The Montreal-based CAE company builds flight simulators and provides training services, particularly for civil aviation, defence and security, and healthcare sectors.
Return to profit for Lloyd's of London. The Lloyd's of London insurance market returned to making profits for the first half of the year. Given the compensation to its customers due to the pandemic, Lloyd’s ended 2020 with annual accounts in the red, Insurance Journal reports. For the year 2020, Lloyd’s paid several compensations for both companies and individuals, including a significant portion relating to event and trip cancellations. However, the effect of COVID-19 continued to be felt in the first half of 2021 because the insurer had to pay nearly 10 billion pounds in compensation related to the pandemic.
Photo: Alstom. All rights reserved.
Contract in France for Alstom. The French manufacturer Alstom will supply 35 trams to the Lyon network in France for 115 million euros, reports Alstom. In a previous contract, Alstom has already supplied 107 Citadis-type trams to the Lyon network, which opened in 2001. Citadis-type trams are Alstom's star model with over 2,700 units sold. They are presently used in several cities including Barcelona, Dubai, Dublin, Madrid, Ottawa and Rotterdam.
New factory for Arcelor Mital in Liberia. The world’s number one steel company, ArcelorMittal, has announced the expansion of its iron ore mining operations in Liberia. According to Arcelor Mital press release, the project involves the construction of a new factory, which should start production by the end of 2023 and should reach 15 million tonnes of ore per year. ArcelorMittal Liberia is the largest foreign investor in Liberia with more than $1.7 billion invested over the past 15 years.
Increased sales for the SQDC. According to Le Devoir, the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) increased its first-quarter profit by 51%, compared to the same period last year, while their sales have increased by a total of 23%. Its network had 68 branches as of June 19, up from 42 on the same date last year. Since the SQDC is a Crown corporation, all profits will be returned to the Quebec government and will be used for cannabis education and prevention campaigns.
Order of 20 A220s for Airbus. According to Yahoo Finance, low-cost US airline Breeze Airways will purchase 20 A220-300 aircraft from Airbus. The planes, originally developed by Bombardier as the C Series, will be assembled at the Mobile plant in Alabama, but will still go through the manufacturer's plant in Mirabel. Founded by Brazilian-American businessman David Neeleman, formerly behind WestJet, Breeze Airways relies on Airbus planes to develop its business in the United States.
Amazon Canada aims to hire 15,000 employees. In order to meet its growth targets in Canada, Amazon plans to hire 15,000 new employees, CTV reports. It is important to mention that future employees of Amazon Canada will benefit from the increase in base salary, which would set the salary to between $ 17 and $ 21.65 per hour. Currently, 25,000 employees are part of the Amazon Canada team and are located in 5 Canadian provinces. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Amazon business has seen a significant increase in demand for online shopping.
Bombardier confirms its leadership position in the business jet segment. The new Challenger 3500 program is fully paid for by Bombardier without any government assistance. Bombardier has unveiled an improved version of its Challenger business jet made entirely in Montreal. According to AviationToday, the new Challenger 3500 is a state-of-the-art aircraft; it will be more comfortable and more environmentally friendly than the 350 version, which it will replace starting next fall.
Market Review. According to CNBC, the New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Friday and the main indices in Toronto and New York also ended the week lower, marking a significantly volatile week for the markets. The Toronto Stock Exchange closed Friday's session at its lowest level in nearly four weeks. Next week, the markets will pay attention to a meeting of the United States Federal Reserve. The press release that will be issued following the meeting will be studied extensively by the markets.
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