"After several weeks of exploring how to restart international travel, with substantial assistance and input from the industry, the framework lacks any rigorous detail about how to get international travel going again... we still do not know when we can start to fly, where we can fly to and the availability and cost of testing."

The CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays Steve Heapy did not hold back in his assessment of the UK government's new "traffic light" plans to reopen the skies to travel this summer, saying all flights will be mothballed until at least mid-June. 

Boss of rival easyJet, Johan Lundgren, commented that the proposals for a fee-based COVID-19 test for returning passengers will be "way over and above the cost of an average fare," meaning international movement will only be available "for people who can afford it."

Trade body Airlines UK described it as a further setback for "an industry on its knees".

In a crushing blow to U.S. labor reform efforts, initial signs are that workers at Amazon's giant warehouse in Alabama have voted decisively against forming a union. Although hundreds of votes remain to be counted, those already tallied suggest that more than 50 percent of the total have voted against unionization at the e-commerce giant.

Despite the recent "Deliver-oops" flop flotation on the London stock market, Indonesia's Traveloka and China's Didi Chuxing are taking confident strides towards multi-billion dollar floats of their own, but this time both will be held in New York. 

The two planned IPOs are being heralded by industry watchers as a sign that the tech start-up growth of the future may be outside western markets. 

We have a short film on how the famous "vaporetto" water buses of Venice are finding a new lease of life in lockdown – as floating immunization centers.

Finally: Fancy a veggie burger? Plenty do, it seems! As California's Impossible Foods eyes a mega-listing, our graph shows how much meat-free living has taken off in recent years. 

Read on for all the day's business news in full.

Louise Greenwood,

Digital correspondent

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The UK's third-largest airline Jet2 has canceled all flights and holidays until June 23 after the government gave more details on its new traffic light system, which will grade countries according to perceived COVID-19 risk. The carrier's CEO Steve Heapy says he has been "extremely disappointed at the lack of clarity and detail" in plans, compared to those in Europe, adding that "it is with a heavy heart that we have taken the decision." Under the new regime, pre-departure and post-arrival virus tests will be required when international travel is expected to resume on May 17 at the cost of around $165 per person.

The UK's chief transport minister Grant Shapps has said people in England can start thinking about booking foreign holidays again this summer but added the cost of the COVID-19 tests needs to be driven down. However, John Holland-Kaye, the CEO of the UK's biggest airport Heathrow, which reported a $2.7 billion loss in February, has said: "We need to make sure that travel is something anyone can do and is not just something for the wealthy." Europe's biggest travel group Tui also said it was "disappointed" at the "expensive" measures proposed.

Early indications are that Amazon has gained enough "no" votes to defeat the unionization effort at its chief North American fulfilment site in Alabama. The New York Times reports that 1,769 workers have voted against unionization, while 726 voted for it, passing the 50 percent mark of 1,608 required to prevent reform. Just over half of the 6,000 employees at the site have cast their vote in the ballot, after a bitter campaign and amid accusations of widespread intimidation by management.

Amazon has successfully fought off union attempts before but this latest effort is the biggest in the firm's 26-year history, while workers at its overseas sites including Germany, the UK and Japan have already unionized. The e-commerce giant argues that Amazon's wage rates of $15 an hour are more than twice the federal minimum limit of $7.25. But unions have already warned events at Bessemer, Alabama will "spark an explosion of union organizing across the country, regardless of the results."

The UK's chief finance minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure over his role in the efforts to prevent the collapse of the supply chain financier Greensill Capital. It has emerged that Sunak "pushed" his officials to find emergency funding for the group, which collapsed last month, after receiving a text from former Prime Minister David Cameron, who was lobbying on behalf of Greensill.

Elsewhere a text message from the group's founder Lex Greensill intended for Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has come to light, wrongly claiming that Cameron was a Greensill board member. The text was sent to the wrong person while Cameron was employed as a paid adviser. The Australian government declined to provide backing for Greensill, which filed for bankruptcy last month after losing insurance cover. 

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse has begun tightening lending terms to hedge funds after losses on both Greensill and the New York-based hedge fund Archegos Capital Management, the failure of which has left the Swiss lender facing losses of $4.7 billion. While it has declined to comment, the bank has reportedly increased margin requirements on swap agreements with borrowers, obliging clients to post more collateral. 

The Eurozone's two largest economies suffered surprise falls in industrial output last month, according to new figures. German output dropped 1.6 percent from the previous month, despite stronger business sentiment, while production in France slumped 4.7 percent and also stagnated in Spain, according to a survey in Bloomberg.

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Indonesia's biggest travel app, Traveloka, is edging towards a flotation after receiving backing from special acquisitions company Bridgetown Holdings. The cash injection of an estimated $500 million could see the online travel provider, also backed by China's JD.com, going public with a price tag of up to $5 billion. Bridgetown, backed by Paypal founder Peter Thiel, went public itself on the Nasdaq last October, raising $595 million in an IPO. On Thursday, its shares jumped more than 13 percent.

China's top ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing has hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to lead its IPO, ahead of the expected blockbuster flotation by the firm in New York later this year. The expanding Didi is expected to reach a valuation of at least $100 billion when it goes to market, possibly as early as July, having received heavyweight backing from Asian investment giants SoftBank and Tencent. If all goes to plan, it will become the biggest Chinese IPO in the U.S since Alibaba's record-breaking $25 billion float in 2014.

China's antitrust regulator is reportedly about to clear plans by Tencent Holdings to take the country's third-biggest search engine private. The State Administration of Market Regulation says it has no objection to the $3.5 billion deal for the 60 percent of U.S.-listed Sogou that Tencent doesn't already own.

Hyundai has become the latest car manufacturer to suspend production due to a chip shortage. The South Korean giant, which has been at the center of speculation over its electric vehicle plans, is to close its Asian plant blaming global "supply conditions." The plant produces 300,000 vehicles annually, including the Sonata and Grandeur sedan models.

Rising levels of air travel in China and the U.S. has caused a jump in March deliveries for Airbus. The troubled plane maker posted 39 gross orders last month, including a new deal for 20 of the A220 model to a single unidentified buyer.

Two leading global governance groups have advised investors to vote down the proposed pay deal for Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky. The Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis both claim the $30 million dollar deal requires "explanations" by the board at the healthcare giant. Johnson & Johnson is facing numerous lawsuits over claims it has helped fuel the U.S. opioid crisis and allegations of asbestos use in its baby talcum powder products.

Japan's Toshiba has issued a statement saying its recent buyout offer from venture capital group CVC Capital Partners was unsolicited and will need to pass anti-trust and financing scrutiny before approval. Earlier this week, CVC put forward a $20 billion that would take Toshiba back into private control. Analysts warn that Toshiba's business interests, which include building nuclear reactors and creating lithium batteries for use in military submarines, will have to pass tougher regulatory reviews than standard takeovers.

An Australian federal court has dismissed Volkswagen's appeal against its record $95 million fine on the German carmaker. The auto giant had been appealing for a lower penalty after the decision in December 2019 for breaching consumer law by making false compliance representations about diesel emissions by its vehicles in the country.

Sportswear giant Nike says the art collective behind the "Satan Shoes" at the center of a recent trademark infringement case has agreed to a voluntary recall as part of a legal settlement. The shoes, which claimed to contain a drop of human blood in the soles, were made as a limited by run by the Brooklyn collective MSCHF in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X. MSCHF says it will offer full refunds of $1,018 per pair to take the shoes out of circulation. Last week federal judges in New York found in favor of Nike, which has been hit by sluggish sales in lockdown and issued a temporary restraining order on MSCHF's further production of the shoes.

U.S. vegan food firm Impossible Foods is preparing for a public listing that could value the group, famed for its plant-based burgers, at around $10 billion or more. That's more than double the potential float price it received last year. Sales at the California-based company, which is in funding talks with various special purpose acquisition companies, hit $7 billion in 2020, a 27 percent year-on-year increase. Impossible Foods has received backing from celebrities like tennis star Serena Williams and rapper Jay-Z. 

WATCH: Venice's famous "vaporetto" water buses are normally full of tourists, but now they're being turned into floating vaccination centers to ensure people living on the city's nearby islets can be safely vaccinated.

The U.S. administration of President Joe Biden has floated plans for a global corporate tax rate that would oblige the world's biggest multinational companies to pay levies based on country sales of their goods. CGTN Europe spoke to Tommaso Faccio of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation and asked how significant the policy change in Washington is.

The proposal from the U.S. administration is a game-changer in the fight against tax havens. It will set a floor, so that multinationals will pay a minimum tax in each country they operate, so they will no longer be able to shift profits to tax havens. And this is a reflection on new thinking, which is that lowering taxes for corporations, the investment doesn't create new jobs. We've seen that in the U.K. with the proposed changes to raising corporation tax to 25 percent, we've seen that in the U.S. with this new proposal to increase corporation tax to 28 percent from 21, but also trying to increase the minimum tax to 21 percent calculated on a country-by-country basis. So if there are profitable U.S. multinationals in the Cayman Islands or in Ireland, they will ultimately be taxed at 21 percent in the U.S..

What does this mean for multinationals? 

We've seen that multinationals have so far been able to avoid paying corporation tax through tax avoidance at around $250 billion per year. In times of crisis like this, that funding is much needed. So the hope is that they will be able to agree on a global minimum tax of 21 percent because the OECD, the G20 average tax rate is around 25.6 percent and more small and medium businesses that only operate at the country level, they're not able to shift profits. 

Might this hinder poorer countries who want to set a low corporation tax to attract big companies?

The data shows that financial flows arrive in countries in the global south, but this does not result in increased investment. What the current system allows is countries to compete with each other for investment but some of the investment would have taken place anyway. And we would just look at the historic data research done by the International Monetary Fund and others, it shows that this tax competition does not lead to new jobs, new infrastructure being created in those countries. This is why this is a gamble that the U.S. administration is taking, asking multinationals to pay for corporate taxes so they can fund infrastructure, they can fund provide resources to face the different crises like the climate crisis and the inequality crisis. 

And finally, California's Impossible Foods is the latest vegan food maker to take a chance on a multi-billion dollar flotation. Whether it is for religious, health or ethical reasons, all the numbers show that a meat-free lifestyle is an option booming in the COVID-19 pandemic.