FRANKFURT / Reuters France’s Dassault Aviation aims to take the lead on the development of a new European fighter jet, its chief executive told a German magazine. “Experience has shown, if you want a defence project to be successful it needs someone to be responsible, a leader,” German weekly WirtschaftsWoche quoted Eric Trappier as saying in an interview. France and …

DUBAI / Emirates Business Airbus will intensively contribute to the next steps in finding a global standard for mission-critical multimedia group communication. After the 3rd Generation Partnership Project’s (3GPP) completion of release 14 of secure multimedia group communication in December 2017, Airbus and its partners within 3GPP are now working on release 15 and 16 by the end of 2019. …

Bloomberg Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner planes equipped with a batch of potentially faulty Rolls-Royce Holdings engines face restrictions on how far they can fly following a ruling by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The measure, which Boeing has said affects about a quarter of in-service 787s, restricts the planes from operating more than 140 minutes from a diversionary airport, …

Bloomberg The parent of Allegiant Airlines dropped following a “60 Minutes” segment detailing a high number of what the programme called “midair breakdowns” at the budget carrier. “Public documents show an alarming number of aborted takeoffs, cabin-pressure loss, emergency descents and unscheduled landings,” according to a report the CBS programme. The segment included interviews with shaken passengers and prominently featured …

NEW YORK / Reuters The global economy is set to grow at a faster clip than anticipated in 2018, due mostly to lower tax rates in the United States, but tensions over trade threaten to derail months of synchronised global expansion, the Institute of Internatio-nal Finance (IIF) said on Monday. The Institute, a global financial industry association, lifted its forecast …

ABU DHABI / Emirates Business Aldar Properties announced the launch of a new AED10 billion masterplan that will incorporate and greatly enhance one of its already established destinations — Alghadeer, which sits close to the border of Abu Dhabi and Dubai within its Seih Al Sdeirah landbank. Alghadeer masterplan consists of 14,408 units, including villas, townhouses, and maisonettes. Total residential …

LONDON / Reuters Royal Dutch Shell defended its ambition to cut carbon emissions on Monday, urging investors to oppose a shareholder resolution arguing that the oil and gas giant is not doing enough to meet international targets to tackle climate change. The Anglo-Dutch company, like many of its peers, has faced growing investor pressure to address the need to reduce …

KUWAIT / Reuters Kuwait’s oil minister said on Monday a pact between OPEC and non-OPEC producers to curb supplies would run to the end of the year and market conditions would determine whether to extend it further. Bakhit al-Rashidi also said the meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in June in Vienna would offer a chance to …

AMSTERDAM / Reuters A fight over the planned privatisation of Dutch energy company Eneco resurfaced on Monday as its works council called for an inquiry after the company announced that its CEO will step down in September. A large majority of the company’s 53 municipal shareholders voted in October to privatise Eneco, while CEO Jeroen de Haas and works council …

SYDNEY / Reuters Chevron Corp will proceed with the second stage of its giant Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant off the northwest coast of Western Australia, the company said. Chevron and its joint venture partners plan to sink 11 new wells in the Gorgon and Jansz-Io fields and build offshore pipelines and subsea structures to pipe the gas …