Bloomberg Embattled Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd reported its biggest drop in passenger traffic in more than a decade after facing heavy backlash from China in the wake of its employees joining protests in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s flag carrier and its Cathay Dragon unit carried 2.9 million passengers in August, down 11 percent from a year earlier, the company said …

Bloomberg British Airways cancelled dozens of flights on Wednesday as it wrestled with the fallout from a two-day pilot strike. While more than 90 percent of services will operate as normal, the morning timetable is subject to changes as the UK arm of IAG SA works to get hundreds of planes and pilots back into position, the carrier said in …

Bloomberg Boeing Co’s troubled 737 Max jets are unlikely to return to service until early 2020 as regulatory authorities in the US and Europe remain divided and the planemaker has yet to submit its finalised software fix planned for this month, according to Barclays. In a note lowering forecasts for the company, analyst David Strauss estimated the company’s free cash …

Bloomberg Hermes International says growth in greater China remains rapid despite months of protests in the luxury shopping hub of Hong Kong. A “slight acceleration” in mainland China will offset the impact from store closures in Hong Kong, which was most significant in August, Hermes Chief Financial Officer Eric du Halgouet said on a conference call. “Globally, our performance in …

Bloomberg Since taking the reins at Spirit Airlines Inc this year, Ted Christie has overseen a 38 percent share decline and a deteriorating financial outlook. But just wait for next year as the discounter steps up efforts to squeeze more revenue out of travellers. “Nobody’s satisfied with the performance to date and I am certainly among that group,” Spirit’s chief …

DUBAI / WAM The UAE has ranked first globally in mobile-broadband subscriptions and network coverage, and second in mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, according to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019, issued by the World Economic Forum. Commenting on this achievement, Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director-General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, TRA, stated, “The UAE’s global achievements are the result of …

Bloomberg Oil advanced to highest level since July after the head of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said that the group had been “very conservative” with its oil demand estimates and that there was no global recession on the horizon. Futures rose as much as 1.6% in New York on Tuesday, gaining for the fifth consecutive day. At a …

Bloomberg Arabtec Holding shares soared in Dubai after the company started talks to merge with Abu Dhabi-based Trojan Holding LLC. The stock advanced as much as 13%, the steepest intraday gain since July 2017, as Arabtec said the entities began a study to potentially combine their construction businesses and may merge after technical, financial and legal reviews. It didn’t provide …

Bloomberg A spat between the world’s most populous countries is holding up a pan-Asian trade agreement encompassing nearly a third of all global trade. Trade ministers from 16 Asia-Pacific countries this week hailed a “critical milestone” after seven years of talks and vowed to wind them up before a regional summit in November. But officials involved in the process say …

Bloomberg State oil giant Saudi Aramco said it’s lining up banks for its long-awaited initial public offering (IOPO) as the sale is now imminent. Banks will be chosen “soon,” Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said at an industry conference in Abu Dhabi. Confirmation of the underwriters will signal that the share sale — set to be the world’s largest — is …