Suppliers and automakers increasingly see developing sustainable products not just as a way to check a box on climate targets but to help them save costs and differentiate themselves from competitors.
Automakers and suppliers have similar challenges in the bumpy EV transition, panelists said at the 2024 Car Management Briefing Seminars.
NASA has yet to make a decision on when Boeing’s Starliner can return home or whether it will have its two astronauts on board. That delay has also led to a decision to delay the planned SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
NASA announced Tuesday it would target no earlier than Sept. 24 for the launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom and its planned crew of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague and Stephanie Wilson along with Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
They’re supposed to relieve the four members of Crew-8 who have been on board the International Space Station since March.
Also on board are NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who flew up on Starliner as part of the Crew Flight Test arriving on June 6 after launching the day before from Cape Canaveral. Issues with the Starliner’s propulsion system’s thrusters and helium leaks, though, have caused delays in the decision on when and how Starliner will return home.
“This adjustment allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test currently docked to the orbiting laboratory,” NASA posted on its website. “Starliner ground teams are taking their time to analyze the results of recent docked hot-fire testing, finalize flight rationale for the spacecraft’s integrated propulsion system, and confirm system reliability ahead of Starliner’s return to Earth.”
Rivian said it ended the second quarter with $5.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents compared with $7.9 billion at the end of the 2023 calendar year. Revenue in the latest quarter was $1.16 billion, a 3.3 percent increase.
Angus Whitley | Bloomberg News (TNS)
Qantas Airways Ltd., not known for usually offering big discounts, has cut prices more than six times this year. Virgin Australia is averaging at least one fare sale a month. Even Ryanair Holdings Plc, which practically invented affordable European air travel, says flights are getting cheaper.
Passengers around the world are winning some respite from the fare madness that followed the pandemic — and further price declines are coming.
It’s a partial rebalancing of power from the post-COVID demand surge that gave airlines almost free rein over fares. As travel restrictions lifted and the world rushed to reconnect, prices ballooned for the reduced number of seats that were available. Premium fares reached more than $20,000.
Now, falling fares reflect the growing number of international flights on offer, particularly in Asia and Europe, and a traveling public that is increasingly cost conscious.
“It’s not just a blip, it’s a global trend,” said James Kavanagh, chief executive officer of leisure at Brisbane-based travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd. “Airlines certainly don’t have all the power at the moment.”