Easyjet News

Sixty-five years after Aristotle Onassis founded Greece's Olympic Airways, another shipping entrepreneur is planning to take to the skies - this time in Italy, where Gianluigi Aponte's MSC has its sights on the successor company to Alitalia.The 81-year-old, known as "the captain" after building his shipping empire from a single vessel, is hoping to forge an air freight and passenger business to dovetail with MSC's sea cargo and cruise operations.But there are big challenges.Alitalia stumbled for years…

Cruises are renowned for their gargantuan all-you-can-eat buffets. Cruise company Carnival is stuffing its face again with a $1 billion equity raise – its third such helping after Chief Executive Arnold Donald feasted on a combined $2.5 billion in share offerings late last year. It’s not clear that Donald needs the financial calories this time round: Carnival had cash to ride out 15 months of zero sales, assuming monthly cash burn of $600 million, at the end of 2020.Despite ships remaining moored, investors can’t seem to get enough: shares are priced at a mere 3% discount to Monday’s close.

Airline chief Stelios Haji-Ioannou's tanker company Stelmar has abandoned its bid for the First International fleet of clean tankers and is now reportedly considering those of Singapore-listed Osprey Maritime, Reuters reported. "Stelmar is looking at the Osprey ships, because the deal with First International is now looking too messy and too time-consuming," a New York-based source told Reuters. Stelmar's London office declined to comment. Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, whose World Shipholding Group holds a 54 percent stake in Osprey, announced in late December that he planned to sell off Osprey's 14 clean tankers to generate cash to invest in gas carriers. The source said that U.S.

Airline chief Stelios Haji-Ioannou's tanker company Stelmar has abandoned its bid for the First International fleet of clean tankers and is now reportedly considering those of Singapore-listed Osprey Maritime, Reuters reported. "Stelmar is looking at the Osprey ships, because the deal with First International is now looking too messy and too time-consuming," a New York-based source told Reuters. Stelmar's London office declined to comment. Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, whose World Shipholding Group holds a 54 percent stake in Osprey, announced in late December that he planned to sell off Osprey's 14 clean tankers to generate cash to invest in gas carriers. The source said that U.S.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou's tanker company Stelmar is poised to swoop on a fleet of modern petroleum products tankers but the deal has become ensnared by a bitter legal battle. The dispute is between the tankers' owner, First International, controlled by the high-profile shipping entrepreneur Paul Slater, and the company's financiers Berliner Bank, industry sources say. "Berliner Bank is leaning heavily on (Slater) to sign the company across to them, but the ships are mainly financed through U.S. bonds -- and the bondholders want to sell to Stelmar. They won't let Paul sign the company across to Berliner," said one industry source. The fleet…

Osprey Maritime Ltd. agreed to sell 10 product tankers to Greek shipping company Stelmar Shipping Ltd. for $216 million. Osprey said that this is in line with its revised strategy of focusing on the ownership and operation of LNG carriers. Athens-based Stelmar was set up in 1992 by Haji-Ioannou, owner of cutprice airline easyJet. Separately, Osprey said it had also agreed to sell another tanker to U.S. OMI Corp. for $14 million. OMI will fund the purchase via cash of $7.7 million and an issue of 900,000 OMI shares at $7.00 each, which amounts to $6.3 million, Osprey said. Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, whose World Shipholding Group now holds a 91 percent stake in Osprey…

A dispute has erupted in New York courts over control of a fleet of petroleum product tankers, currently working for oil major Shell. Both the owner of the ships, First International, and an investment fund, which lent most of the $257 million to build the fleet, have asked the court to decide which of them controls the future employment of the six tankers. The tankers have worked for Shell since new on a seven year contract, at a rate described by brokers as "rather generous", but last year, as widely anticipated, Shell exercised its right to pull out from the deal. First International, a chain of eight interlinked tanker-owning companies controlled by Norwegian tanker-mogul Tom Steckmest, was left looking for fresh employment.

The Connecticut Maritime Association (CMA) announced that Stelios Haji-Ioannou has been named the 2003 recipient of the Association’s prestigious Commodore Award. Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Chairman of easyGroup, joins a distinguished list of maritime executives who have received the Award, which is given each year to a member of the international maritime community who has demonstrated leadership, vision and commitment to the business. Donald Frost, President of the Association, commenting on the selection stated, “Mr. Haji-Ioannou has provided the international maritime community with enthusiastic leadership since he entered it. . Haji…

Norwegian tanker mogul Tom Steckmest bought out bondholders with whom he was due to clash in the New York courts over control of a fleet of six petroleum product tankers. "The existing bonds have been amicably cancelled and all disputes settled," Steckmest said. Shipping sources said he had paid $135 million to cancel the bonds in addition to $8 million he paid last year for equity in the ship-owning company First International. The bondholders lent most of the $257 million to build the fleet of tankers, which have worked all their lives on long-term charters to oil major Shell. Both parties asked the courts in April to decide which of them controlled the future employment of the six vessels, after the bondholders refused to accept a new contract Steckmest had negotiated with Shell.

Rydex has appointed KeySystems as its exclusive distributor for the Greek and Cyprus markets. The Athens-based company has achieved major sales success in the Greek shipping market with the MarineKey document management system. KeySystems belongs to the Hadji-Ioannou Group of companies that include Stelmar Tankers and the EasyJet airline company.