Bloomberg Finnair Oyj faces a wipeout of its Asian traffic as a tit-for-tat of airspace closures in Europe and Russia jeopardises its main long-haul strategy. Finland’s national carrier has carved out a niche providing transit passengers from smaller European cities the shortest flight times to Asia. But the flights through its Helsinki hub to destinations like Hong Kong, Seoul and ...

Bloomberg Major airlines reported a surge in bookings from Hong Kong last week as the city saw a new pandemic-era record in net population outflow, underscoring how a deepening Covid-19 crisis is pushing more residents to leave. Emirates Airlines said it is seeing weekly double-digit growth for advanced bookings until July, particularly to the UK and other European countries, according ...

Bloomberg Associated British Foods Plc said sales at budget-clothing retailer Primark picked up during the first half but are still below pre-pandemic levels as omicron deterred some shoppers from leaving their homes. Primark’s sales are expected to rise more than 60% in the six months through March 5, AB Foods, which also owns grocery, agriculture and sugar businesses, said. The ...

  Bloomberg Distressed flag carrier Garuda Indonesia plans to cancel billions of dollars worth of aircraft orders from Airbus SE and Boeing Co as part of a court-supervised debt restructuring to slash its debt and weather a slump in air travel due to the pandemic. The state-owned carrier wants to cancel its order for nine A330-900 jets and four A330-800s, ...

Bloomberg Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is entering a new phase, promising a more deadly time ahead for the country’s civilians and its remarkably determined army, according to Western military officials. Early signs are that Russian commanders are abandoning the approach that marked the first days of the conflict, in which they relied on lightning strikes into cities they assumed would ...

  Bloomberg Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Vladimir Putin is engaging in “extreme blackmail” that requires a “swift, firm, united reaction” after the Russian president put his country’s nuclear forces on high alert. Draghi said that Putin’s warning last week that those who obstruct Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would face “consequences that you have never encountered in your history” ...

  Bloomberg Burkina Faso’s military leader on Tuesday signed off on a return to democracy within three years following a coup in January. A civilian prime minister will lead a 24-member cabinet during the transition, according to the charter adopted following a meeting in the capital, Ouagadougou. Interim President Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, the prime minister and the speaker of ...

Bloomberg The head of Ukraine’s nuclear-power utility called on international monitors to intervene to ensure the safety of the country’s 15 atomic reactors as an advancing Russian invasion nears Europe’s largest nuclear plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency will convene an emergency session on Wednesday in Vienna to assess the situation. The watchdog has been warning for days that the ...

  Bloomberg Sanctions leveled on Russia will ultimately cause more damage to the US and its allies, a research group that advises Chinese President Xi Jinping said, as Beijing weighs how much backing to give its close diplomatic partner. Russia has largely adapted to dealing with punitive financial measures since 2014, when it was penalized for seizing Crimea, Ma Xue, ...

  Bloomberg China’s smaller banks could come under greater scrutiny over financing to Russia as the nation’s biggest lenders are already showing signs of complying with US and European sanctions in a bid to protect their large international footprints. Within the commercial banking system, one model allowing China to support its strategic partner would be through an institution similar to ...