Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Asia Aviation —the operator of Thailand’s Thai AirAsia—will raise as much as 17.9 billion baht ($536 million) to boost the group’s finances and help revive the loss-making airline that’s been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Through a private placement, Asia Aviation will sell 7.8 billion baht of shares to Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes ’ AirAsia Group , the company said in a filing to the Thai bourse. A group of investors led by Pitharn Ongkosit, the CEO of KCE Electronics—founded by Pitharn’s father Bancha Ongkosit —will subscribe to an additional 1 billion baht of Asia Aviation shares, it added. Asia Aviation—backed by Thai tycoon Tassapon Bijleveld —also plans to raise 3.9 billion baht from loans, 3 billion baht from a rights offering and 2.2 billion baht from the sale of convertible bonds. Airlines are among the hardest hit by the pandemic as countries around the world closed their borders to contain the …
Alphabet’s Wing project unveils new drone delivery model in Texas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Alphabet Inc's Wing said on Wednesday that Walgreens will use its new drones to make deliveries from a store in Texas, in the first use of such vehicles in a major U.S. metro area. Wing said it will launch the effort at a Dallas-Fort Worth area Walgreens store in its parking lot, serving parts of the city of Frisco and town of Little Elm. Prior to this, drone delivery projects have been in smaller U.S. towns. "The aircraft will arrive in small containers that serve as tiny hangars, allowing each store to quickly and easily deploy a small, dedicated fleet from its parking lot, on its roof, or in small spaces adjacent to the building," Wing said. Wing said Walgreens employees will process and load packages onto the delivery drones, rather than Wing employees. Wing said that since June it has been conducting test flights at a drone testing facility in Fort Worth and in the coming months expects to launch a commercial service there that it says will "be the …
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Swiss Watch’s Art of Time returns to KL in time for economic reopening
Valiram Group executive directors Sharan Valiram (fifth from left) and Ashvin Valiram (sixth from left), as well as Valiram chief executive officer Ian Lim (left) and partners. - A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 21): Swiss Watch’s signature timepiece event Art of Time has returned to Pavilion Kuala Lumpur for its seventh edition to enthrall Malaysian watch lovers once again. The showcase headlined by Arnold & Son, Bell & Ross, Breitling, Graham, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Tudor, Ulysse Nardin and Zenith will provide visitors a glimpse into the watchmaking world. It also marks the start of Swiss Watch’s milestone anniversary of providing two decades of passion into the luxury watch community in Malaysia and beyond. Art of Time 2021 was officially launched on Wednesday (Oct 20) by Valiram Group executive director Ashvin Valiram, witnessed by representatives of brands partners and event partners as well as guests. Luxury and lifestyle retail …
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Google’s Wing Plans To Launch Drone Delivery Service In Dallas Fort-Worth Area
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline Wing, the drone delivery unit of Google parent company Alphabet, aims to set up shop in the suburbs of Dallas-Ft. Worth, the company said Wednesday, in what would be the first residential drone delivery service in a major metropolitan area in the United States. Key Facts Wing said it plans to begin test flights in the Dallas-Ft. Worth bedroom communities of Frisco and Little Elm, and hopes to win the necessary approvals at the local, state and federal levels to launch commercial service in those cities in the coming months. Wing aims to launch local service in partnership with Walgreens from a store that a spokesperson said would be able to fulfill orders for a limited range of merchandise from customers in an area containing upward of 50,000 people in Frisco and Little Elm. The drones will be dispatched from a small shipping container configured as a drone base in the Walgreens’ parking lot, and will …
In This City, Toilet Paper Comes From The Sky Thanks To Google’s Drones
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The Virginia town of Christiansburg is getting a preview of what life will be like when delivery by drone becomes practical. Forced to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, more residents are ordering from a pilot residential delivery service run by Wing, a unit of Google GOOGL parent Alphabet, the company says. The most popular items: Coffee, toilet paper and cookies. Wing says it’s made more than 1,000 deliveries over the past two weeks in Christiansburg and at test sites in Helsinki and two Australian cities where movement has also been restricted to stem the spread of the disease. “That’s a dramatic increase from our standard rates,” says Jacob Demmitt, a spokesman for Wing. The company won’t break out numbers for Christiansburg. A local bakery and a coffee roaster recently added to the service are hoping that drone delivery will help keep them afloat. In their first day of availability on Saturday, which has …
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The Royal Navy’s Weirdest Ship Is For Sale. It’s a Loss For The U.K.
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The end is in sight for one of the British fleet’s strangest and most useful ships. And there’s no plan to replace her. RFA Argus , a 574-foot casualty-receiving and aviation-training vessel with myriad secondary roles, is for sale, the U.K. Defense Equipment Sales Authority announced earlier this month. “As the Royal Navy’s primary casualty receiving ship, Argus has supported U.K. forces across the world during the Ebola crisis as well as Bosnia and the Gulf War,” DESA noted in its sales brochure. “With an aircraft lift and hangars, her secondary role in support of aviation training is most valuable,” DESA explained, adding that Argus ’s out-of-service date is 2024. It’s not clear how much DESA hopes to get for Argus , assuming there’s a buyer for the 41-year-old vessel. Whatever the sale price, Argus ’s disposal realistically is a net loss to the British fleet. There’s nothing to take her place. That’s …
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