Rolls-Royce trading update forecasts long-haul travel down 55% in 2021

Rolls-Royce has reported that trading in December and for 2020 was “broadly in line with expectations across all business units”, noting that for the full year 2020, the manufacturer achieved cash cost savings of more than £1bn and ended the year with £9bn liquidity, which is at the upper end of the previously guided range. Although Rolls-Royce lauds the continued progress on vaccination programmes as “encouraging for the medium-term recovery of air traffic and economic activity”, for the near-term the manufacturer expects the variants of the virus to create additional uncertainty that will delay the recovery of long-haul travel. As