05/03/2026

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | MAR 5, 2026

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Airlines, travel sector scramble over Middle East conflict

LONDON: The airline and tourism industries scrambled to deal with the fallout from the escalating US and Israeli air war against Iran, while governments rushed to bring stranded travellers home from the Middle East following the cancellation of more than 20,000 flights in recent days. Major Gulf hubs including Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, remained closed or severely restricted for a fourth day, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded. According to Flightradar24, some 21,300 flights have been cancelled at seven major airports including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi since the strikes started. The attacks have upended travel across a growing region with several thriving business hubs that are trying to diversify away from oil-dominated economies. The turmoil also narrows an already-slim flight corridor for long-haul flights between Europe and Asia, complicating operations for global air carriers. Stranded travellers across the Gulf rushed to secure seats on a limited number of repatriation flights as governments moved to bring passengers home even as explosions tore through Tehran and Beirut. Emirates, flydubai and Etihad have been operating a limited number of flights since Monday, mostly to repatriate stranded passengers. “It’s pretty well the biggest shutdown we’ve seen certainly since the Covid pandemic,” said Paul Charles, CEO of luxury travel consultancy PC Agency, adding that beyond passenger disruption the cargo impact would run to “billions of dollars.” Many passenger airlines also move cargo in their aircraft bellies, resulting in disruptions to air freight. Cargo specialist FedEx said by email it was using “contingency measures” it did not describe in the Middle East, after saying earlier in the day that it had resumed pickup and delivery services in the region where possible. The United Arab Emirates government said 60 flights had taken off, operating in dedicated emergency air corridors. The next phase will be operating more than 80 flights. The US is securing military and charter flights to evacuate Americans from the Middle East, a US State

o More than 20,000 flights cancelled as Gulf hubs shut, leaving tens of thousands stranded Department official said on X on Tuesday, adding that it was in contact with nearly 3,000 US citizens. The department was under fire from US lawmakers who said the Trump administration should have advised people to leave before the attacks started. Delta Air Lines said on Tuesday it paused New York-Tel Aviv flights through March 22 because of the conflict and was offering rebooking options and a travel waiver for affected customers through March 31. Demand for alternatives to Gulf airlines has surged, with bookings and ticket prices jumping on routes like Hong Kong-London, Reuters’ checks showed on Tuesday. Should the conflict drag on, it could cost the Middle East billions in tourism dollars, analysts estimate. “We can’t get home, we can’t go back to work, we can’t get the kids back to school,” said Tatiana Leclerc, a French tourist stuck in Thailand, whose flight had been set to go via the Middle East hubs that are a key link between Asia and Europe. In an early sign of a thaw, Virgin Atlantic said on Tuesday it would resume services as scheduled between London’s Heathrow Airport and Dubai or Riyadh. Shares of air carriers worldwide fell on Tuesday. The operational and financial effect varies significantly among airlines, said Karen Li, J.P.

Govts are scrambling to arrange repatriation flights as passengers remain stranded across the Middle East. – UNSPLASH PIX

business. Its stock fell 2.2% on Tuesday. Qantas Airways CEO Vanessa Hudson said the airline has “pretty good” fuel hedging but the spike in oil prices was significant for the industry. The Australian airline’s shares fell 1.8%. Shares of Japan Airlines closed down 6.4%, while Korean Air Lines dropped 10.3%, its biggest fall since March 2020, as it resumed trading after a public holiday on Monday. Shares of major Chinese carriers including Air China and China Southern Airlines lost between 2% and 4% in Hong Kong and Shanghai. – Reuters

price of jet fuel per gallon added about US$40 million (RM157 million) to its yearly fuel bill. A 10% increase would add US$1 billion to Delta’s 2026 fuel bill, Third Bridge analyst Peter McNally said. Shares of most US carriers ended lower, with Southwest down about 1% and Alaska Air off roughly 2%. In Europe, shares of Wizz Air, British Airways owner IAG, Lufthansa and Air France KLM ended down 5% to 8%. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told Reuters the airline was hedged for the next 12 months at about US$67 a barrel and that the recent fluctuations would not impact the

Morgan’s head of Asia infrastructure, industrials and transport research. “There are important differences across carriers in terms of hedging strategy, air cargo exposure, and network rerouting capabilities that will shape the actual impact from the Middle East situation,” Li said. Oil prices have surged amid the widening conflict. Benchmark crude is up roughly 30% so far this year, threatening to lift jet fuel costs and squeeze airline profits. Most US airlines long ago gave up on hedging fuel purchases, their second-largest operating cost behind labour. In its latest annual filing, Delta said every one-cent increase in the

Moderna to pay up to US$2.25b in Covid patent settlement WASHINGTON: Moderna has agreed to pay Genevant Sciences, a unit of Roivant Sciences, and Arbutus Biopharma up to US$2.25 billion (RM8.8 billion) to settle a long-running legal fight over the technology that made its Covid-19 vaccine possible, the companies said on Tuesday. Under the deal, Moderna will pay US$950 million upfront in July 2026, with an additional US$1.3 billion that depends on the outcome of a separate legal appeal. The deal resolves all US and international legal actions accusing Moderna of using lipid nanoparticle, or LNP, a delivery technology owned by Genevant and Arbutus, without permission in its Covid vaccine. Moderna said in a press release that it would not owe the companies any royalties for LNP technology in its future vaccines under the agreement. Lipid nanoparticles act as a tiny protective shell that helps fragile mRNA molecules reach human cells intact, allowing the vaccine to work as intended. – Reuters

US banks brace for cyberattacks amid Iran conflict WASHINGTON: The US financial services industry is on heightened alert for potential cyberattacks amid the unfolding US war in Iran, with firms stepping up monitoring for threats that often rise during periods of geopolitical conflict, said executives and analysts. The killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei last weekend in an air strike has sparked a conflagration in the Middle East that has roiled markets globally and stoked concerns over the potential for Iran-linked cyberattacks on US financial services operations. runs an annual exercise to ensure financial firms can operate through significant cyber emergencies. “We continue to monitor the current situation with a focus on operational resilience, which is foundational to the integrity and stability of the US capital markets,“ Klessman said. Another top banking industry official said lenders are very concerned about the risk of cyberattacks, which they see as likely. Western entities, including banks,“ the credit rating agency said. US investment bank Lazard’s geopolitical advisory team also this week flagged cyber risks, noting that Iran has demonstrated a willingness to deploy cyber capabilities against commercial targets, including financial systems. According to a 2025 report by the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (FS-ISAC), an industry consortium, the financial services sector was the top target of DDoS attacks in 2024, with the Hamas-Israel and Russia-Ukraine wars fueling a surge in hacktivism.

According to a US intelligence assessment that Reuters reported on Monday, Iran-aligned “hacktivists” could conduct low-level cyberattacks against US networks, such as distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), whereby hostile actors overwhelm a targeted server with a flood of internet traffic. Credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS said on Tuesday the most significant risks to global banks and asset managers were likely to be indirect, including sustained higher oil prices and shocks to borrowers, but warned that cyber risks could also rise. “Iran could increase its cyberattacks against

Cybersecurity has long been a top priority for the financial services industry, which operates critical US infrastructure, including payments, clearing and settlement systems, as well as trading platforms and Treasury markets, making it a top target of cyberattacks, according to industry data. “The industry remains vigilant and ready to respond to cyber threats at all times, and especially when global cybersecurity risks are heightened,“ said Todd Klessman, managing director for financial services cyber and technology at industry group SIFMA which

While the industry has not in recent memory suffered a major disruption due to a hostile attack, smaller-scale DDOS attacks as well as ransomware attacks have disrupted pockets of the market. A 2023 ransomware attack on the US broker-dealer unit of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China disrupted settlement of some US Treasury trades. A spokesman for FS-ISAC did not immediately provide a comment. – Reuters