Covid-19 flight groundings pushed Ryanair to a €185m loss in the three months to June, as 99 per cent of the fleet stayed stuck on the tarmac from mid-March on, the Financial Times reported. Last year it made a €243m profit over the same period. Revenues tumbled by almost €2.2bn — 95 per cent — to just €125m, while costs only came down 85 per cent. But the airline has been scaling its flight schedule back up quickly since lockdowns started to lift: 40 per cent of flights were due to run in July, 60 per cent in August and 70 per cent come September.

Investment firm Eurazeo has asked bidders to submit last-ditch bids in September for French car rental firm Europcar Mobility Group SA as it seeks to avert a painful restructuring, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, Reuters reported. The Paris-listed firm has attracted takeover interest from Volkswagen but a bid has yet to materialise as the German car maker remains wary of the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic on the car rental industry, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

PizzaExpress stakeholders are under pressure to reach a debt deal this week before a deadline to pay more than 20 million pounds ($26 million) in debt interest, Bloomberg News reported. A group of the company’s bondholders, including U.S. firms Cyrus Capital Partners LP, HIG Bayside Capital and Bain Capital Credit, are seeking to take control of PizzaExpress’s U.K. and Irish business in exchange for providing fresh funding and cutting the debt load. Under their plan, current owner Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital would be left with the overseas restaurants including those in China.

European companies are fending off insolvency as massive support from central banks and governments softens damage from coronavirus lockdowns, raising the prospect of a coming shock when that stimulus ends, Bloomberg News reported. The number of firms seeking court protection from creditors in major European economies such as Britain, Germany and France has slumped since the pandemic hit the region this year, even as growth took a battering. U.K.

Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann challenged the landmark stimulus package agreed by European Union leaders this week, emphasising the importance of controls for the funds that seek to pull the region’s economies out of the worst recession in memory, the Irish Times reported. In an interview with German newspaper Funke Mediengruppe on Sunday, Mr Weidmann questioned aspects of the package, saying it shouldn’t serve as “a springboard for large-scale EU debt for regular household financing.” While the creation of the €750 billion fund to address the fallout from the pandemic was the

Argentina’s government reaffirmed on Saturday that it would not budge from its latest proposal to restructure around the $65 billion (51 billion pounds) in debt, but signaled it would be willing to negotiate on the fine print around the deal. The South American country is facing a standoff with bondholders after creditor groups joined forces to reject the government’s proposal earlier in July and put forward one of their own. The government has repeatedly said it cannot offer more, though sources told Reuters this week it would be willing to negotiate key contractual terms.

Russia’s central bank cut its key interest rate to a record low as the coronavirus pandemic has pushed the economy into a deep recession, forcing President Vladimir Putin this week to delay a flagship $360 billion national development plan by six years. The bank on Friday lowered its benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage point to 4.25%, following a one-percentage-point cut in June to a post-Soviet low. The bank’s move makes lending to businesses and consumers cheaper in an economy hit hard by a twin strike of lockdowns and lower oil prices.

It is hard to know just how close to the edge Government Covid-19 travel restrictions are pushing Aer Lingus. Irish Airline Pilots’ Association president Evan Cullen warned the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response on Friday it was not sustainable for the carrier to continue burning €1.5 million a day with little revenue being generated, the Irish Times reported. Cullen noted such a rate of cash burn is not sustainable for any business. These were common sense points.

In the summer of 2012, it took Mario Draghi three words to alter the course of the eurozone debt crisis. Eight years later, a breakthrough from EU political leaders battling the Covid-19 threat took months of haggling, culminating in a marathon five-day summit that ended this week, the Financial Times reported. Despite the differing timescales, investors are already comparing Tuesday morning’s deal to establish a EU-wide €750bn recovery fund — from money raised in the bond markets — to the former European Central Bank chief’s pledge to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro.

Irish travel tech company CarTrawler has seen a rise in bookings in recent months although it doesn’t expect business to fully recover until next summer at the earliest, The Irish Times reported. UK private equity group TowerBrook took control of the company in return for a €100 million cash injection in May after it was thrown into emergency debt restructuring talks due to the grounding of airline fleets globally amid the Covid-19 pandemic.