AirBaltic said it’s developed a plan to resume flights to Ukraine at short notice of the airspace reopening, three years after the Russian invasion severed the country’s air links.
The Latvian airline plans to shift capacity from other destinations into Ukraine once safe to do so, Chief Executive Officer Martin Gauss said on Monday in an interview. AirBaltic would also want to keep some aircraft in Ukraine overnight, a practice known as night-stopping, he said.
“We can be flying tonight if it’s safe,” he said. “I would even fly empty there if it’s clear we can fly out and would sell the tickets, and the tickets are sold.”
Optimism for the end of the war in Ukraine is gaining momentum, with US President-elect Donald Trump saying he could settle the country’s conflict with Russia. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has suggested he’d accept a cease-fire with Russia that left parts of his country occupied in return for NATO security guarantees over the rest.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Kyiv on Monday and offered additional military aid, which stands to strengthen Zelenskiy’s hand in any cease-fire talks.
AirBaltic had a strong market in Ukraine and previously operated flights from Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa but was forced to suspend all flights when the airspace closed because of the conflict. Airlines are now assessing when and how to restart flights into Ukraine when the airspace reopens. Ryanair Holdings Plc has promised to base 30 aircraft there and help rebuild the country’s aviation industry once the war ends.
Opening the airspace and airports would provide AirBaltic with an additional key market, given that Ukraine travel demand is high, Gauss said. The carrier would also be able to cross Ukraine’s airspace to fly a more direct route south of Latvia to destinations such as Dubai and Greece.
Gauss said the airline hasn’t included the plan in its guidance because it’s unclear when Ukraine’s airspace will open again.
Ahead of a proposed initial public offering, AirBaltic is in advanced talks with a “large stock-listed airline,” Gauss said, without disclosing the airline and a time-line. It comes after Bloomberg News reported Deutsche Lufthansa AG was considering taking a stake in the Latvian airline.
The IPO was initially set to happen in the second half of this year, but Gauss said the earliest is now in the first half of 2025 because market conditions need to be right.
AirBaltic is among the airlines impacted by Pratt & Whitney engine issues under the wings of Airbus SE aircraft. The carrier currently has 16 aircraft on the ground for removal and inspections, and expects as many as 12 jets to be grounded next summer, Gauss said.
In November 2024, Ukraine remained a net importer of electricity, but its total imports decreased by 9% compared to October – to 165 million kWh, D.Trading LLC reported.
According to its analytical report provided to the Energoreforma portal, most of the electricity was imported to Ukraine from Slovakia (55.5 million kWh). Poland ranks second (41.4 million kWh), Hungary third (33.3 million kWh), followed by Romania (28.6 million kWh) and Moldova (6.1 million kWh).
The largest volume of electricity imports per day was on November 1 – 12 million kWh, or more than 4% of total electricity consumption in Ukraine.
According to the company, in November, as in October, imports did not reach the maximum technically permitted capacity of 1700 MW, reaching only 1300 MW in the evening peak.
“In general, the utilization of the offered cross-section fell to 42% (in October it was 72%). But at the same time, the volume of the offered crossing was 54% higher than in October – 390.7 million kWh. The interconnection with Hungary was used by 24%, with Poland – by 87%, with Romania – by 31%, with Slovakia – by 64%, with Moldova – by 27%,” the report says.
According to the company’s estimates, last month, imports, taking into account all costs, were economically feasible in only 20% of hours from Hungary (145 hours), Romania (142 hours) and Slovakia (136 hours). From Poland, imports were reasonable in 35% of all hours (254 hours).
“D.Trading notes that the main factors behind the dynamics of electricity imports during the month were deteriorating weather conditions, which led to an increase in consumption; high spot prices in neighboring EU countries caused by increased demand; shelling of energy infrastructure, which led to the renewal of restrictions; business demand for imported electricity after the restrictions were lifted.
According to the company’s analysts, in the first decade of November, imports fell from the initial level of more than 10 million kWh per day to 1-3 million kWh/day. They attribute this to a significant increase in prices on the spot markets of European countries due to the almost complete absence of renewable energy production and the growth of consumption to an excessive level.
According to D.Trading, in Hungary alone, consumption at the beginning of the month was more than 10% higher than normal for this period of time, and scheduled repairs at the Kozloduy NPP unit (Bulgaria) further worsened the situation with the balance of Southeast European countries.
At the same time, the high load on power lines due to increased consumption also led to restrictions on interstate electricity transfers.
At the same time, prices on the Ukrainian day-ahead market (DAM) were significantly lower than European prices due to price restrictions.
Analysts point out that imports continued to remain at a very low level until November 17, when massive shelling of the energy infrastructure took place.
“The restrictions imposed on industrial consumers after that increased business demand for imported electricity. Due to the extremely high prices in Europe, businesses did not use the import quota at the maximum possible level, so import growth in the last decade of November was only up to about 10 million kWh per day,” D.Trading describes the situation.
As reported, electricity imports in October decreased by 58% compared to September and became the lowest figure since March 2024.
The full report will soon be posted on the Energoreforma website https://reform.energy/.
Transmagistral Insurance Company PrJSC will increase its authorized capital to UAH 248 million through an additional issue of shares worth UAH 200 million.
According to the company’s information posted in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), this decision was made by shareholders at a meeting on November 29, 2024.
The additional share issue will include 20 million shares with a par value of UAH 10.
As reported at the end of January 2024, JSC Ukrtransnafta, the authorized person acting on the basis of the agreement dated 1 November 2023 on the exercise of rights to 89.4977% of shares in IC Transmagistral, announced a public irrevocable offer for all shareholders of the company to purchase their shares. The purchase price of the shares was UAH 17.76 per ordinary share, which corresponds to the estimated value as of November 2023.
Earlier, the National Bank of Ukraine approved the indirect ownership of 92.4059% of the shares of Transmagistral Insurance Company by the state of Ukraine. Prior to that, on January 8, the NBU confirmed that the company’s ownership structure met the transparency requirements.
According to the company’s website, as of April 2024, the company’s shareholders were Ukrtransnafta JSC – 91.992%, Ukrtransnafta Corporate Fund LLC – 2.908%, Primary Trade Union Organization of Ukrtransnafta JSC (Kremenchuk, Poltava), Primary Trade Union Organization of Ukrtransnafta JSC – 2.908%.
In 2023, the European Union imported 339.8 thousand tons of spices from non-member countries, according to the EU Statistical Office (Eurostat).
Over the past ten years, imports have increased by 44%.
Last year, China was the main supplier of spices, accounting for 39% of the total supply to the European Union, the report said.
The most popular spice was ginger (114 thousand tons), followed by paprika (110.6 thousand tons) and pepper (50.3 thousand tons). China was the main country of supply for ginger (43%) and paprika (73%), while pepper was mostly purchased from Vietnam (63%).
Turmeric ranked fourth (16 thousand tons), with the bulk of imports coming from India (79%). Cinnamon was in fifth place (13.3 thousand tons), with Vietnam accounting for more than a third of the supply (37%).
Over the past ten years, imports of turmeric and ginger have increased most significantly – by 2.4 times and 2.1 times. At the same time, purchases of pepper abroad decreased by 11%.
Zaporozhkoks, one of Ukraine’s largest coke producers and a member of Metinvest Group, increased its blast furnace coke production by 2% year-on-year to 800.47 thousand tons from 784.90 thousand tons in January-November this year.
According to the company, 71.36 thousand tons of coke were produced in November.
As reported, Zaporozhkoks increased its blast furnace coke output by 16% in 2023 compared to 2022, up to 856.8 thousand tons from 737.4 thousand tons.
“Zaporizhkoks produces about 10% of coke in Ukraine and has a full technological cycle of coke products processing. It also produces coke oven gas and pitch coke.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its major shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Prices for residential real estate in the UK in November rose by the highest since November 2022 by 3.7% in annual terms, according to a report by the British mortgage company Nationwide Building Society. The indicator has been growing for the tenth month in a row, in October the growth was 2.4%.
The consensus forecast provided by Trading Economics assumed that the growth rate would remain at the October level.
Compared to the previous month, house prices increased by the highest since March 2022 by 1.2% after rising by 0.1% in October and now average 268,144 thousand pounds ($340.2 thousand) per property. This is only 1% below the historical high recorded in 2022.
“The acceleration in house price growth is surprising as affordability remains low by historical standards,” said Robert Gardner, senior economist at Nationwide. ”House prices remain high relative to average earnings and interest rates are well above pre-COVID levels.
http://relocation.com.ua/tsiny-na-zhytlovu-nerukhomist-u-velykij-brytanii-v-lystopadi-zrosly-na-3-7/
