Europe

According to two industry insiders, Wizz Air has been moving towards a deal to buy engines for 177 Airbus jets that it already ordered. They said that an announcement could be made as soon as the Paris Airshow this week. It would also form part of a settlement reached with the engine manufacturer over groundings due to repair times. Wizz Air, RTX and Pratt & Whitney parent RTX both declined to comment. Last year, the airline that operates an all Airbus fleet said it had only two options – its current supplier Pratt & Whitney whose engines have been experiencing...

Lawrence Christian flew to India to bury the father he had lost. His family is waiting for him to be buried a week later. Christian, 30, was a British citizen and one of 242 passengers aboard the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed in London last week, just seconds after it took off from Ahmedabad. His mother Ravina, who was sitting with her daughter Rinal at home in Ahmedabad and sobbing uncontrollably, said that when he sat in the plane he saw me on a video call. The last thing that he said is that he would call me...

Cyprus received requests from Portugal and Slovakia to help evacuate their citizens from the Middle East. Cypriot foreign minister Constantinos Kombos announced this on Monday. Kombos, a reporter, said that there were two requests in progress. This depends on their ability to get their civilians into neighbouring countries via road. Last week, Cyprus activated an evacuation mechanism that would assist third-country nationals if necessary. Hermes, the airport operator of Hermes, has confirmed that dozens flights from the Middle East have been diverted to Larnaca and Paphos airports following the suspension of most flights to and out of Israel after the...

International airlines have stopped flights to certain Middle East destinations following Israel's attacks against Iran. Here are some airlines that have canceled flights from and to the region. AEGEAN AIRLINES Aegean Airlines, a Greek airline, announced that all flights from and to Tel Aviv, including the early morning flight of July 12, had been cancelled. AIRBALTIC AirBaltic, a Latvian airline, has announced that it will cancel all flights from and to Tel Aviv up until the 23rd of June. AEROFLOT After Israel's attack on Iran, Aeroflot announced that it has cancelled flights between Moscow-Tehran and changed other routes in Middle...

International airlines have stopped flights to certain Middle East destinations following Israel's attacks against Iran. Here are some airlines that have cancelled flights from and to the region. AEGEAN AIRLINES Aegean Airlines, a Greek airline, has cancelled all flights from and to Tel Aviv, including the early morning flight of July 12. It also cancelled all flights from and to Beirut, Amman and Erbil, up until the morning arrivals on June 28. AIRBALTIC AirBaltic, a Latvian airline, said that all flights from and to Tel Aviv were cancelled until June 23. AEROFLOT After Israel's attack on Iran, Aeroflot announced that...

A source with first-hand knowledge of the situation said that an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for New Delhi was returned to Hong Kong on Monday as a precautionary move after the pilot suspected there was a technical problem mid-air. This incident occurred just days after an Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London, which used the same type Boeing aircraft, crashed moments after takeoff in the western Indian town of Ahmedabad, killing 241 out of 242 passengers on board. Sources with knowledge on the matter confirm that the Dreamliner aircraft, which flew Air India flight AI315 from Hong...

As flight delays, cancellations and other disruptions are on the increase, businesses and leisure travellers are becoming more discerning about the type and level of insurance that they purchase. Travel disruptions have increased around the globe since 2019. This is due to COVID-19, extreme temperatures, volcanic eruptions or military conflicts, as well as computer problems, fires, and jet safety issues. Air traffic controller shortages in the U.S. and outdated technology have led to significant disruption. In May, equipment failures, runway construction, and staffing shortages led to flight cancellations, delays, and diversions at Newark Liberty Airport, one of New York City's...

These are the most popular stories from the Wall Street Journal. These stories have not been verified and we cannot vouch their accuracy. According to sources familiar with the situation, activist investor Barington Capital Group owns a stake in Victoria's Secret. Barington Capital Group believes that the lingerie retailer is not living up to its potential. Luca de Meo, Renault's Chief Executive Officer for the past five years, plans to retire in mid-July. He will then pursue new challenges beyond the automotive industry. Southwest Airlines has added a new cockpit warning system to its fleet of aircrafts. This comes after...

The Financial Times reported that a building used by Boeing was severely damaged by a large-scale Russian aerial attack. It cited six sources familiar with the situation and photos seen by the paper. Ukraine's Air Force reported on Tuesday that Russia used 315 drones, seven missiles, and other weapons to launch air strikes on Kyiv in the early hours of last week. The newspaper reported that Boeing's building had been among the targets of Sunday night's attack. It cited two Boeing employees, as well as three Ukrainian officials, and the head of American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine. Andriy Korayagin,...

El Al Airlines, Israel's national airline, has announced that it will cancel flights from and to many European cities and Tokyo as well as Moscow and Moscow up until the 23rd of June due to the conflict between Israel & Iran. Israel's airspace is still closed, and all flights up to June 17 have been cancelled by the Israeli flag carrier. El Al stated that once the necessary approvals have been received, it will be possible for as many Israelis to return to their homes, resume its regular flight schedule, and begin operating rescue flights to destinations close to Israel....

Sources said that officials from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board surveyed the crash site of the Air India plane that killed 271 people on Sunday. Families are still waiting for the DNA profiling results in order to identify the charred remains. One source said that officials from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration were also in Ahmedabad, Gujarat State in western India, surveying the crash scene, along with the NTSB. After takeoff, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner carrying 242 passengers bound for Gatwick Airport in south London started losing height. It exploded in a massive fireball when it struck buildings below....

Thirty minutes before the Air India plane crashed into the college hostel, Ravi Thakor and his wife, who worked in the hostel's canteen, went out to deliver the lunchboxes, leaving behind his two-year old daughter and her mother. The grandmother and the child are missing. Thakor hopes for a second miracle, like the miraculous survival of the only passenger out of 242 on the plane. Thakor initially thought that the loud bang heard by him when the plane crash on Thursday, in the western city Ahmedabad, was the explosion of a gas-cylinder. But he soon realized the building he just...

Calculations based on data from traders showed that the price of Russia's Urals crude rose above the $60 limit set by Western nations, as the Brent price surged last week due to rising tensions in Middle East. The oil prices rose on Friday, and ended 7% higher after Israel and Iran exchanged air strikes. This fueled investor concerns that the conflict could disrupt Middle East oil exports. As part of a wide range of sanctions, the U.S. and other Group of Seven nations, including Australia, imposed a price cap on Russian oil exports by sea in late 2022. According to...

Uganda forecasts its economic growth will accelerate to about 7% in the coming year, indicating that officials do not plan on large-scale production of energy in the next twelve months. This year, growth was projected at 6.3%. The latest government estimate was that crude production would begin in the middle of the year. However, this date has been pushed back repeatedly due to disagreements between the government of President Yoweri Museeveni and international energy companies and the slow progress of building critical infrastructure. Companies including France's TotalEnergies, China's CNOOC and China's TotalEnergies are developing Uganda's oilfields near the border with...

Khnatsakh residents are anxious at nightfall. Locals claim that every evening, around 10 pm, Azerbaijani soldiers fire into the night skies from their positions high above. Villagers say that bullets have been hitting houses regularly, but no one has been injured so far. Azerbaijan has denied that its troops are firing across the border and accused Armenian forces of violating ceasefire. Karo Andranyan (66), a retired mechanic, said, "It is very tense at home because we have children, little ones and elderly." Azerbaijani flags and a military position on a hillside are only 100 metres away from his door. This...

According to industry sources and calculations, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium has reduced daily oil production in May from April by 6% to 5,906 million metric tonnes (1.51 millions barrels per day). CPC, the company that carries over 80% of Kazakh oil exports connects Tengiz in western Kazakhstan, and other fields, with the CPC terminal at Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka in Russia, near Novorossiisk. Sources said that Kazakh exports of oil via CPC dropped to 5.386 millions tons in may from 5.523 in April, while Russian oil supplies via CPC reached 0.52 million tonnes in May compared with 0.57 million in April. The...

The European Commission's proposal to lower the price of Russian oil to punish Moscow for the war in Ukraine would not help stabilize the global energy market, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Wednesday. The European Commission proposed on Tuesday to lower the price cap of the Group of Seven Nations on Russian crude oil from $60 to $45 per barrel, in an attempt to reduce the country's revenue. Peskov, when asked about the EU proposal he called Western sanctions such as these illegal. Peskov said that such actions "do not contribute to stabilising international energy markets or the oil...

Sara Aagesen, Spain's Minister of Energy, urged private electric companies to share information faster to determine the cause of the worst blackout ever to strike Spain and Portugal. The cause of the power outage that left 60 million people without electricity in two European countries has not been determined, and the blame-game has increased. Aagesen, who was in Nice, France for a U.N. Conference, told reporters that information arrived quickly at first. "Now, information is arriving in bits and pieces much slower." She admitted that the information needed was more detailed, and at times more complex. She said, "But I...

According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the 18th package against Russia has been proposed. It targets its energy revenues, banks, and military industry. The new package proposes to ban transactions with Russia's Nord Stream Gas Pipelines as well as banks who engage in sanctions-circumvention. Von der Leyen said at a press conference that "Russia will only understand the language of strength" if it imposes the rule by force. In an effort to reduce Russia's revenues from energy, the Commission also proposed that the price cap for Russian crude oil be lowered to $45 per barrel. It was...

Four traders who are active in the market stated on Friday that spot supply has tightened and reduced discounts for Russian Urals crude oil to be delivered to Indian ports by July. This is the lowest discount since 2022. Indian refiners are being pushed by tight supplies and narrowing discounts to look for alternative products through purchasing tenders. Sources said that spot discounts for Urals crude for cargoes arriving to India in July decreased to an average of $2.25 per barrel, compared to $2.70 to $3.10 a barrel for dated Brent delivered ex-ship basis the previous month. This is the...

The British economy has recovered from the weaker end of the decade to 2024. However, the public is still unsatisfied with the slow improvement in living standards. This was the message delivered by Finance Minister Rachel Reeves on Thursday. She said that recent business surveys and the latest GDP (gross national product) numbers are all very positive. "That's good news, and it does show that we are starting to turn the corner." The purchasing managers' indexes, released this week, show a rebound in activity following a sharp drop in April as a result of the shock caused by President Donald...

Finance Minister Rachel Reeves stated on Thursday that more upbeat surveys of business as well as a strong first quarter gross domestic product indicate the British economy will recover from a weak finish to 2024. She said that the latest GDP figures, which showed a 0.7% increase in the first three months, the highest in the G7 and the recent business surveys are all very positive. She spoke at a dinner organized by the Confederation of British Industry. "That's good news, and it shows we're beginning to turn a corner." The purchasing managers' indexes, released this week, show a rebound...

The English Court of Appeal denied Russian tycoon Ziyavudin Magomedov, who is currently in jail, permission to appeal a ruling that dismissed his $14 billion lawsuit filed against Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft as well as other companies. Magomedov filed a lawsuit against the company, as well as several other defendants at London's High Court. He claimed that his arrest in 2018 on embezzlement allegations triggered a Russian government-supported scheme designed to strip him of valuable port operators. Transneft and the U.S. private equity company TPG, among other companies, were successful in their bids to block Magomedov’s London lawsuit. Transneft...

The city of Cologne, west Germany, evacuated thousands of people from the central area of the city on Wednesday after three bombs dating back to World War II were discovered. This was the largest evacuation since the end World War Two. A 1,000-metre radius evacuation zone was established at 8 am (0600 GMT) and affected around 20,500 people, including many hotel guests and workers in the old town of Deutz. On Monday, three American bombs with impact fuses were discovered during construction in Deutz, an area bustling on the Rhine's bank. Experts in bomb disposal plan to dearm the ordnance...