Bloomberg When Amazon.com Inc. bought Whole Foods last year, investors panicked and dumped shares in Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market and even Walmart. The fear was that the e-commerce leviathan would disrupt yet another industry. Since then, the concerns have subsided as investors and analysts came to recognise that it will be years before Amazon becomes a major player in the …

Bloomberg JetBlue Airways Corp., which for years let passengers check luggage at no charge, became the first major US carrier to bump the fee for a first checked bag to $30. The $5 increase is effective for trips booked started on Monday. JetBlue also raised the charge for a second checked bag by $5 to $40 and for a third …

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc signed its first-ever union contract, granting Italian pilots perks such as severance pay in a deal the airline hopes to repeat across its network to contain a protracted labor dispute. The deal commits Ryanair to making contributions to national health care and social-security funds as well as paternity rights, the Italian pilots union ANPAC said in …

Bloomberg Asia-Pacific airlines will need to add the greatest number of pilots, technicians and cabin crew over the next two decades as economic growth spurs travel demand. The region will require 240,000 more commercial-aircraft pilots, 242,000 technicians and 317,000 cabin crew from 2018 to 2037, making up more than one-third of the global total, according to a forecast by Boeing …

Bloomberg China’s top three airlines are poised to show this week that they’ve been hard hit by a jump in crude prices and the yuan’s depreciation. Combined net income at Air China Ltd., China Eastern Airlines Corp. and China Southern Airlines Co. probably fell more than 50 percent to 4.95 billion yuan ($727 million) in the first half of 2018, …

Bloomberg A rebuff from the regulator may set Asia’s richest banker Uday Kotak on a $17 billion acquisition trail, as he seeks to meet a year-end deadline to reduce his stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. below 20 percent. Buying another financial firm may be the most palatable way for Kotak to pare his holding, following the Reserve Bank of …

Bloomberg Bank of Nova Scotia’s purchase of Jarislowsky Fraser is already paying off. The acquisition of the Montreal-based money manager, along with improved margins and lower provisions, contributed to record Canadian banking profit in the fiscal third quarter, Scotiabank said. Earnings from domestic banking rose 8 percent to C$1.13 billion ($880 million) from a year earlier. The C$950 million purchase …

Bloomberg Singapore’s dollar is approaching the upper boundary of its trading band as speculation mounts that the central bank will boost the exchange rate for a second time this year to combat inflation. The currency reached a record high against a basket of major trading partners’ currencies, based on HSBC Holdings Plc’s model of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s managed …

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s Japan chief Makoto Kuwahara will leave the German lender after five years in charge of operations in the country, to join Credit Suisse Group AG. Kuwahara, who is also president of local unit Deutsche Securities Inc., is departing to pursue other interests, Deutsche Bank said in a statement. He will be replaced by Tamio Honma, head …

Bloomberg Bank of Montreal (BMO) set a profit record for its US business, thanks in part to Donald Trump’s tax cuts and lower provisions for bad loans. The lender earned $281 million from its US personal-and-commercial division in the fiscal third quarter, helped by rising revenue, and tax reform gains. Earnings for the US business, which includes Chicago-based BMO Harris …