Latest News
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Belgium's Liege Airport temporarily closed again due to drone sighting
The Belgian airport of Liege has resumed flight after a temporary stop due to a sighting of a drone, the country’s air traffic service announced on Friday. This is the second incident in this week. Skeyes, the Belgian air traffic control service, said that it had received a report about a drone flying over the airport at 06:30 GMT. The airport was closed for 30 minutes. Kurt Verwilligen said, "We must take every report very seriously". Flights had resumed, he said. He added that flights had resumed. Drones flying over military bases and airports have been a problem in Belgium for the past few days. They have also caused major disruptions in Europe. In Sweden, airports were temporarily closed on Thursday. Some officials blamed the incidents upon "hybrid war" by Russia. Moscow denies any involvement in the incidents. On Thursday, the Belgian government convened an emergency meeting with key ministers of government and security officials to discuss what the defence ministry called a coordinated assault. (Reporting and editing by Alessandro Parodi, Benoit van Overstraeten)
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Wizz Air defers Airbus deliveries, cuts long-haul jet orders
Wizz Air announced on Friday that it would delay the delivery of 88 Airbus aircraft to 2033 from 2030 and reduce its commitment to long haul jets, as the budget carrier seeks to maximize profitability. Wizz also converted 36 A321XLR jets with a long range to A321neo jets, reducing the total A321XLR order to 11 planes from 47 previously, and keeping its 273-plane orderbook unchanged. Wizz Air, a Hungary-based airline, has struggled to compete with other European carriers in recent years due to engine problems with its Airbus aircraft. This led it to miss its first-quarter profits targets in July. The airline announced on Friday that it would have a fleet of only fuel-efficient, neogeneration aircraft by the year 2029. (Reporting from Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru and Yadarisa Shabbong; editing by Rashmi aich)
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IAG, the owner of British Airways, reports a third-quarter profit that is in line with expectations
IAG, the owner of British Airways, reported on Friday a slight rise in operating profit in the third quarter. This was in line with expectations, but it highlighted a continuing weakness in their U.S. economy cabin point-of sale offering. The airline is the latest to announce a decline in transatlantic travel since the election of Donald Trump. His policies, which are seen by many as anti-foreigner, anti-trade and anti-trade abroad, have impacted the market. The group, which owns Iberia and Vueling, also said that its passenger load factors - a measure of performance used to evaluate the performance of airlines - had fallen in all regions. Most pronounced being A 2.4-point decline on lucrative North Atlantic routes. The company's consensus estimate for its three-month profit ended on September 30 was 2.1 billion euro, which is 2% higher than the previous year. Reporting by Yamini Kalya and Shashwat AWASTHI in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Phillips and Josephine Mason
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India's highest court declares that the Air India crash report is not a slander against the pilot
India's highest court announced on Friday that the preliminary report of an Air India crash in which 260 people died in June did not implicate anything against the captain. However, it will listen to a request from the father of the pilot on November 10, for an independent investigation. After criticising the government's investigation, 91-year old Pushkar Raj Sabharwal called for an independent investigation to be conducted by a panel led by a retired Supreme Court Judge. He claimed that two officials of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, who visited him, had suggested that his son, pilot Sumeet Saharwal, had cut the fuel supply to the plane's engines after takeoff. The investigation was described as "very thorough" and "very clean" by the government. India's air accident investigation body published a preliminary report in early this year that said the fuel engine switches on the plane had switched from run to shutoff almost simultaneously just after takeoff. (Reporting and writing by Arpan Chaturvedi, Delhi; editing by Mrigank Dahniwala and Michael Perry).
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Honda reduces annual operating profit after Q2 decline
Honda Motors cut its annual profit projection by about a fifth, and reported a 25% decline in its operating profit for the second quarter on Friday. Its performance was hit by U.S. tariffs on imports and one-off expenses related to electric cars. The second largest automaker in Japan has lowered its operating profits forecasts for the year up to March 2026 from 700 billion yen to 550 billion ($3.65 billion). The new forecast factored in an expected decline in production volume due to a shortage of chips. Honda reported a 194-billion-yen ($1.29-billion) profit from July to September, compared to the 212.1-billion-yen average profit that nine analysts surveyed by LSEG expected and a 257.9-billion-yen profit during the quarter of July-September in 2024. $1 = 150.7800 Japanese Yen (Reporting and editing by Himani Sarkar).
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InPost, a parcel locker company, trims its annual earnings forecast
InPost, a Polish parcel locker company, reported on Friday a 24% increase in its core earnings for the third quarter. However, it lowered its expectations for the full year citing increased investments in Britain. Analysts had expected a quarterly adjusted earnings of 1.02 billion zlotys, or $291 million. InPost now expects to see its adjusted EBITDA grow by a midteens percentage, as opposed to its previous forecast of a low to midtwenties percent growth. The forecasts of annual group revenue and volume remained unchanged. In the third quarter of 2018, the company delivered 351,5 million parcels. This is a 34% increase on the previous year. The volume in Poland, the company's biggest market, grew by 10%, accelerating from the 6% increase seen in the second-quarter, which was affected by lower volumes at its main customer, ecommerce company Allegro.
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The Fujian, China's third aircraft carriers, is put into service
China's first aircraft carrier, designed by itself, has been commissioned after several months of sea trials. It was named the Fujian after the province that faces Taiwan across the narrow strait. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that President Xi Jinping was at the ceremony to commission and present the flag of the Fujian, in Hainan Province, on Wednesday. He also boarded the ship for an inspection tour. The Fujian, China's third aircraft-carrier, has a flat flight-deck and electromagnetic catapults to take off. This makes it a far more powerful weapon than China’s first two Russian designed carriers. The Fujian carrier will be able carry more jet fighters and those with heavier weapons than the Liaoning or Shandong carriers. These carriers are smaller and use ramps to launch their aircraft. The Chinese Navy launched a new carrier-based version of its J-35 stealth aircraft and a KJ-600 early-warning plane, along with a variant of their established J-15 fighter, in sea trials prior to the commissioning. Analysts and military attachés in the region say they'll be monitoring upcoming deployments to see how fast Fujian can become combat-ready. They will also monitor flight operations, and efforts to integrate its operations with support vessels and submarines. Reporting by Beijing Newsroom in Hong Kong and Greg Torode; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Raju Gopalakrishnan
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Trump will meet with Orban in Hungary to discuss Russian oil and economic cooperation
The U.S. president Donald Trump will meet with the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban for talks on Friday. They are expected to talk about Hungary's dependence on Russian oil, at a moment when Trump is working to wean countries off it. Orban, who has been a Trump ally for many years, will meet the U.S. President in person for the first bilateral meeting since Trump returned to his White House office in January. Both leaders share similar views on immigration, but the reliance of Hungary on Russian oil could be a difficult issue. Trump has insisted that European nations cease buying Russian oil as a means to stop Moscow funding its invasion of Ukraine. Hungary's continued reliance on Russian Energy since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine 2022 has prompted criticism from several European Union allies and NATO members. Hungarian officials stated in the lead-up to the event that Orban aims at discussing a way to a U.S. - Russia meeting and seeking exemptions from U.S. Energy sanctions. Trump announced last month that he was going to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Hungarian Capital. However, the meeting has been put on hold because Russia refused a ceasefire. Orban said to the Hungarian media before the meeting that he did not expect tough negotiations on sanctions exemptions for Russian oil companies. MTI, the state news agency, reported that Orban had called energy sanctions "serious," and that the "stakes" were "high," even though he didn't expect that the discussions with Trump about this topic would be difficult. MTI quoted Orban as saying: "I know him, he knows myself, we both know the topic, and we just have to come to an agreement." Both leaders will also discuss ways to increase economic cooperation between the United States of America and Hungary. The White House stated that the two leaders will discuss "areas on mutual interest", and suggested some possible deals. A White House official stated that "the American people can expect to get more great deals from Prime Minister Orban’s visit, spanning different industries." Orban, the Hungarian leader who is up for election in 2026 has developed a close relationship with Trump, despite tensions over Russian Oil and Orban's pro China policies. Last month, the U.S. restored Hungary to full status under its visa waiver program. This was a tangible sign that relations have improved under the Trump Administration. Hungary has rejected plans by the European Commission that would phase out all EU imports of Russian gas, including liquefied gas, by 2027. This is a further rift between Brussels and Moscow over the issue of relations. Reporting by Steve Holland in Washington, and Anita Komuves from Budapest; Editing and production by Colleen Jensen and Alistair Bell
Australian shares fall to a six-week low after Macquarie and banks weigh
The Australian share market closed Friday at its lowest level in over six weeks, due to a sharp drop in Macquarie shares after the investment bank's top management missed their profit targets. A broader decline in major lenders also contributed to the losses.
The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.7%, to 8,769.70. This is its lowest closing since September 24, and second consecutive weekly loss.
Macquarie fell 5.7%, to a six month low.
Reporting
A first-half loss, impacted by the weakness of its commodities and markets trading businesses.
We think that the market knew the risk of missing 1H26 earnings due to the weakness of (Macquarie)'s first quarter results. The extent of the missed earnings will still be a shock, according to Citi analysts in a recent note.
Macquarie's weakness dragged the broader Financials sub-index down 1.3% on the day. However, it ended the week up 1.4%, boosted by gains at top lenders Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Westpac.
CBA and Westpac both fell by 1.5% and 1.8% on Friday, but they are still on track to record weekly gains.
The broad resources index fell 0.7% this week and 2.7% in the past seven days, due to a pause in the gold rally and a continued decline in iron ore. BHP and Rio Tinto fell 0.8% and respectively 1.3%.
The technology stocks fell 2.3%, reaching a low of six months. This mirrored the Wall Street declines due to concerns about high valuations for AI-linked giants.
Block's local shares fell 15.8%, to a low of five months after the company missed its profit estimates for the third quarter.
Qantas Airways, the flag carrier, lost 6.6% and fell to its lowest level in six months after cutting its forecasts due to lower corporate demand for non-resources and rising costs.
The benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index for New Zealand closed at 13,599.21, up 0.2%.
(source: Reuters)