Bloomberg AirAsia Group Bhd is closing its affiliate operations in India, the local aviation minister said over the weekend, a comment his office later suggested was taken out of context. “AirAsia’s shop is anyway shutting down,” Hardeep Singh Puri said in televised comments that were widely circulated on social media. “Their parent company has problems.” A spokesman for AirAsia India, …

Bloomberg SpiceJet Ltd, India’s second-biggest airline, will start regular flights to London from Delhi and Mumbai, a move it has long been pursuing. The no-frills airline will fly Airbus SE A330-900 neo aircraft on the routes, Chairman Ajay Singh said in an online briefing with reporters on Monday. The flights will start from December 4 and there will be two …

Bloomberg Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd will carry out rapid pre-flight coronavirus testing for cabin crew and pilots from its base at London’s Heathrow airport, the company said on Monday. The carrier said it launched a trial on flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong on September 30 and is planning a wider roll-out that will involve testing every operating crew at …

Bloomberg Singapore’s GIC Pte and private-equity firm TPG will invest a combined $1 billion in Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s retail unit, taking total inflows into the business to about $4.4 billion. GIC will spend 55.1 billion rupees ($753 million) for a 1.22% stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, while US-based TPG will take 0.41% for 18.4 billion rupees, the Indian …

Bloomberg US futures climbed with global stocks on optimism over economic stimulus and that President Donald Trump may soon leave the hospital. The yen retreated and Treasuries were steady. Consumer companies and banks led a broad advance among European stocks. Equities in Asia notched gains, while crude oil rebounded from a three-week low. Haven assets dipped, with gold and the …

Bloomberg Singapore Exchange Ltd. (SGX) is beginning to reduce its pact with MSCI Inc. months earlier than expected, citing market uncertainty into year-end to speed up delisting the largest derivatives product it has in partnership with the index provider. The exchange will migrate all open positions in the MSCI Taiwan Index futures to its newly launched FTSE contracts on October …

Manama / Emirates Business Trade between the UAE and Bahrain returned to levels not seen since before the Covid-19 pandemic, with new figures revealing $936 million in bi-lateral commerce during the first half of this year. June’s figures showed the positive economic impact of support measures on the economies of both kingdoms, with trade returning to $139.6 million — the …

Bloomberg Libya’s oil output has risen to 295,000 barrels following a truce in the Opec nation’s civil war and the lifting of a blockade on energy facilities. Fields that feed the newly restarted eastern ports of Hariga, Brega and Zueitina are ramping up production, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Output was 250,000 barrels a day a …

New Delhi / WAM Even as India extended the ban on regular, scheduled international air travel until October 31, the Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, said he expected international flights to be fully operational by the first quarter of 2021. In a series of media interactions, including a conversation with the Emirates New Agency (WAM), the minister anticipated …

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia added new incentives to keep its mortgage boom going by scrapping a 15% value-added tax on property sales and offering other relief for home buyers amid a push by the Arab world’s largest economy to expand residential ownership. Property transactions will instead be subject to a new 5% real estate sales tax, according to state-run news agency …