Lufthansa is losing 1 million euros ($1.2 million) every two hours, “a significant improvement” over the low point of the COVID-19 crisis, the German airline group’s chief executive said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Lufthansa, which was racking up losses at twice that rate at one point last year, has cut costs and pared back flights to those generating positive cash thanks to buoyant cargo rates, CEO Carsten Spohr said in a webcast interview hosted by Eurocontrol. The group last year received a 9 billion euro bailout in which the German government took a 20% stake.

The Irish High Court said on Friday it had granted an extension to Norwegian Air’s creditor protection, as requested by the examiner overseeing the process, Reuters reported. The extension to Feb. 25 was granted after a lawyer representing the Irish examiner told the court that the examiner believed the budget carrier had a reasonable prospect of survival. Norway’s government backed the airline’s survival plan on Thursday, saying it would stump up cash if private investors did too. “I will grant that application and extend the time for reporting...

If one of the main reasons coronavirus infection rates remain so high is that people refuse to self-isolate, paying them to stay home could make a difference. But doing so isn’t just expensive, it risks some unintended consequences, according to a Bloomberg commentary. The U.K. Department of Health is reportedly recommending a plan to pay workers 500 pounds ($683) to self-isolate, according to a leaked document detailed by the Guardian on Friday.

Norway backed Norwegian Air’s survival plan on Thursday as Industry Minister Iselin Nyboe said that the government had no intention of being a shareholder but would stump up cash if private investors did too, Reuters reported. The heavily indebted budget carrier, which has been forced to ground all but six of its 138 aircraft due to the coronavirus crisis, asked the government for help last week. Norwegian was granted bankruptcy protection by courts in Ireland and Norway last year as it seeks to shed much of its debt. It plans to end its long-haul service.

Europe’s downtown office buildings are empty, and malls and main streets are deserted, yet the biggest landlords are staying afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to robust central-bank buying of bonds backed by property debt, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some worry that the policy is obscuring long-term pain should workers and shoppers never return in their pre-coronavirus numbers.

Poland’s MBank SA and ING Bank Slaski SA are recognizing potential losses from legal battles over Swiss-franc loans, moving the industry closer to resolving a dispute that has long clouded its prospects, Bloomberg News reported. The unit of Commerzbank AG set aside a record 439.5 million zloty ($118 million) to cover risks from its foreign-currency mortgages in the final three months of 2020, likely putting the lender in red for the quarter.

KLM said that it would cut an additional 1,000 jobs in 2021 and warned on Thursday that government plans to require all passengers and crew to pass a COVID-19 test before flying to the Netherlands would ground its long-haul flights, Reuters reported. KLM, which already cut 5,000 jobs last year, joined other airlines operating in the Netherlands to criticise a proposed requirement for all inbound passengers to show a negative result from a “fast” COVID-19 test taken within four hours of boarding a plane.

Britain’s first weeks of doing business outside of the EU have been mixed, as goods from large companies mainly sail through ports but many small businesses struggle with the new post-Brexit rules, the Wall Street Journal reported. Still, the true test of the U.K.’s new relationship with the EU will come in the next few weeks, say trade experts and companies, as shipment volumes increase and the difference between teething problems and permanent obstacles becomes more apparent at one of the world’s biggest trade borders.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fair Business Banking, supported by law firm Humphries Kerstetter LLP, is to conduct an in-depth investigation into standards in the UK insolvency profession, AccountancyAge.com reported. The APPG on Fair Business Banking is concerned there might be systemic issues with how the corporate insolvency sector is regulated after hearing a number of worrying cases, according to Heather Buchanan, executive director, policy and strategy at the APPG.

As France lived through its worst economic slump since World War II, business failures slid to the lowest in 33 years, Bloomberg News reported. The number of bankruptcies and firms seeking protection from creditors or entering receivership fell 38% in 2020, as government aid in the face of the coronavirus pandemic kept French companies afloat, according to figures gathered by enterprise-data firm Altares. That may foreshadow a wave of defaults in 2021 and 2022, said Thierry Millon, its head of research.