Qantas

Qantas Airways is considering giving free flight vouchers or air miles to people who have had their Covid-19 shots, joining a growing list of businesses offering vaccination incentives to kick-start global travel.

While details have not been finalised, fully inoculated Qantas frequent fliers might also be offered free loyalty status credits, Qantas said in a statement yesterday.

The scheme is due to run until the end of this year, when Australia's vaccination programme is expected to be mostly complete, the airline said.

BLOOMBERG

General Motors

The carmaker said on Thursday that it will restart four North American plants that were idled for much of the past four months because of the global shortage of computer chips. The statement came after it and other carmakers spent the last few months announcing they were idling factories and slowing production because they could not get enough of the tiny parts.

GM has said the semiconductor shortage will lower pretax profit this year by US$1.5 billion (S$2 billion) to US$2 billion. It earned US$3 billion in net income in the first quarter, but expects to make only US$500 million in the second.

NYTIMES

JD Logistics

JD Logistics surged on its trading debut, giving the Chinese delivery and warehousing firm a US$34 billion (S$45 billion) stock market value in Hong Kong's second-largest listing this year.

Shares of the company, spun out from Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com, rose as much as 18.3 per cent compared with the initial public offering (IPO) price.

JD Logistics' stock gains came after it priced its US$3.2 billion IPO closer to the lower end of an indicated range.

REUTERS