Sunday newspaper round-up: Covid-19 restrictions, Airline industry, Aviva

(Sharecast News) - Britain will have a six-week window to open up in the summer or risk keeping Covid-19 restrictions in place until the spring, ministers fear. Boris Johnson on Saturday gave his clearest signal yet he is planning to delay a full return to normality for another month, as he said he wanted to give Covid-19 vaccines "extra legs" in "the race between the vaccines in the lockdowns". - Sunday Telegraph
The airline industry's recovery from the pandemic passed a milestone as more than 2 million people streamed through US airport security checkpoints on Friday for the first time since early March 2020. The Transportation Security Administration announced on Saturday that 2.03 million travelers were screened at airport checkpoints on Friday. It was the first time in 15 months that the number of security screenings has surpassed 2 million in a single day. - Guardian

Aviva is set to fire its top fund managers to slash costs just days after an activist investor emerged as a major shareholder in the insurance giant. The FTSE 100 company is planning to oust ten equity managers from its investment arm Aviva Investors, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. David Cumming, chief investment officer for equities, has left. And Mikhail Zverev, head of global equities, is among the high-profile fund managers expected to be fired. - Financial Mail on Sunday

Metro Bank has taken an axe to the interest it pays on its savings accounts. In a letter sent to customers in the past few days, the bank that prides itself on its customer-centric approach to retail banking has said that 'following a review', rates on two mainstream instant access accounts will be slashed to 0.05 per cent from August 12. - Financial Mail on Sunday

Halfords, Britain's biggest bicycle and motoring parts retailer, has been a beneficiary of lockdown as the country got on its bike and used its car to take domestic holidays. On Thursday the company expects to report a surge in pre-tax profits to between £90m to £100m for the year to April, beating analysts' £70m estimates. Its profits were just under £56m last year and £59m in 2019. And the trends that have boosted sales at Halfords over the past 12 months are set to continue. - Guardian

Travellers have been left stranded in cities in the UK and Ireland and nearly 500 jobs are at risk after a regional Irish airline announced it was going into liquidation. Aer Lingus said a number of regional flights had been cancelled after the operator, Stobart Air, ended its contract with the Irish airline. The announcement, which comes after Stobart Air failed to find a buyer and ceased trading, affects several flights from Dublin and Belfast airports to UK cities. - Guardian

Sir Richard Branson is in talks to take his satellite launch company public via a $3 billion (£2.1 billion) deal with a blank-cheque vehicle founded by a former Goldman Sachs banker. Virgin Orbit is finalising a deal to merge with NextGen Acquisition II, a New York-listed special purpose acquisition company (Spac) established by George Mattson, Sky News reported. - Sunday Times

JD Sports is under fire for paying bonuses to executive chairman Peter Cowgill despite taking hundreds of millions of pounds in government support. In a scathing report, the advisory firm Glass Lewis recommends that shareholders vote against the retailer's "inappropriate" pay policy. It says they should oppose Cowgill's re-election on the basis of inadequate succession planning and a lack of progress on boardroom gender diversity. - Sunday Times