Business

LONDON — EasyJet on Monday said it was cancelling flights to and from the UK after high COVID rates in Europe left the British airline with a lack of staff.

It comes as the global aviation industry, despite recovering after lockdown curbs were lifted, has come up against a new costly headwind in the form of soaring fuel costs.

EasyJet rival Ryanair on Monday revealed it expected to post a net loss of at least 350 million euros ($385 million) in its financial year just ended.

That compared to a loss of at least 250 million euros in an earlier forecast made by the Irish carrier. 

EasyJet said separately that "as a result of the current high rates of COVID infections across Europe, like all businesses... [it] is experiencing higher than usual levels of employee sickness".

After cancelling more than 200 flights over the weekend, EasyJet said it had preemptively cancelled 60 for Monday.

The airline noted that it was a "small proportion" of the more than 1,645 flights planned for the day.

"We have taken action to mitigate this through the rostering of additional standby crew, however, with the current levels of sickness we have also decided to make some cancellations in advance," EasyJet said in a statement.

In the UK, rates of COVID infection have hit a record high, according to official data on Friday.

Some 4.9 million people in the UK are estimated to have had COVID-19 in the week ending March 26, or 600,000 more than the previous week, the Office for National Statistics said.

The World Health Organisation has said that several European countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy lifted their COVID curbs too "brutally" and are seeing a rise in cases likely owing to the more transmissible BA2 variant.

Surging fuel costs 

Ryanair on Monday added that its net loss for the 12 months to the end of March 2022 would at most hit 400 million euros, down on a previous estimate of 450 million euros.

The Dublin-based carrier also said it had increased its hedging to cover 80 per cent of its jet fuel refined from crude, which has surged in price as economies reopen from lockdowns and on tight supply fears after major oil producer Russia invaded Ukraine. 

Airlines seek to bet against volatile oil prices by hedging — or taking a defensive position on futures markets.

BRUSSELS — The European Union (EU) on Monday extended for another 10 years its ban on mobile phone roaming surcharges for people using their European handsets while travelling in the 27-nation bloc.

The "roam like at home" scheme is one of the more popular pieces of legislation for EU citizens and residents, allowing them to make calls and texts and use data in other EU countries at the same price as that charged in their domestic plans.

The European Council representing the EU's member states said it gave final approval to extend the scheme beyond when the current regulation expires at the end of June.

It will now continue until 2032.

In a statement, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) that the renewed policy requires telecom operators to strive to give roaming at the same quality, meaning EU visitors not being shunted to lower speed 3G or 4G networks when higher speed ones are available.

BEUC's deputy director general Ursula Pachl called the extended policy "one of the EU's greatest success stories for consumers" and one of the "tangible benefits" of its single market.

Many consumers in Britain, which left the European Union two years ago, are seeing roaming charges return.

At least three big British telecom operators decided to bring back added roaming fees, which average an extra 2 pounds (2.40 euros, $2.60) per day for those visiting the EU.

BERLIN — Germany said on Monday it was temporarily taking control of Russian gas giant Gazprom's German subsidiary to secure energy supply and critical infrastructure amid growing distrust between the trade partners in the wake of the Ukraine war.

Energy Minister Robert Habeck said the Bundesnetzagentur energy regulator would become the trustee of Gazprom Germania until September 30.

"The government is doing what is necessary to ensure security of supplies in Germany, and that includes not exposing energy infrastructures in Germany to arbitrary decisions by the Kremlin," Habeck said.

The move comes after state-owned Gazprom unexpectedly said it was withdrawing from Gazprom Germania last Friday, without disclosing a new ownership structure.

The German unit holds several key energy assets, including natural gas supplier Wingas, which has a market share of around 20 per cent in Germany, gas storage firm Astora, a London-based trading arm and other foreign subsidiaries.

The German government made the decision to step in because of the current "unclear" legal structure behind Gazprom Germania and the mother firm's failure to comply with the obligation to inform German authorities of ownership changes, the minister said.

Under the German law, the government has the right to examine transactions involving non-EU firms deemed systemically relevant.

Habeck said Gazprom Germania operates "critical infrastructure" in Europe's biggest economy.

Under the interim arrangement, voting rights in Gazprom Germania will be transferred to the Bundesnetzagentur. 

The energy regulator will also be allowed to dismiss management members and appoint new ones, as well as "take all necessary measures to guarantee supplies", Habeck said.

BAGHDAD — Iraq is becoming a land of opportunity for Lebanese job-seekers fleeing a deep economic crisis back home.

Akram Johari is one of thousands who fled Lebanon's tumbling currency and skyrocketing poverty rates.

Last year, he packed his bags and boarded a plane from Beirut to Baghdad, using social media to search for opportunities.

"I didn't have enough time to look for a job in the Gulf," the 42-year-old said, explaining why he eschewed the more traditional path for those seeking economic opportunities in the region.

With its relative proximity and visas on arrival for Lebanese, the Iraqi capital seemed a good option.

"I had to take quick action, and so I came to Baghdad and began searching for work on Instagram," Johari said, speaking in a restaurant he has run for about a month.

Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with war.

Beirut's crisis, driven by years of endemic corruption, has seen Lebanon's currency lose more than 90 per cent of its value against the dollar.

Lebanon's 675,000 pound monthly minimum wage now fetches around $30 on the black market, and about 80 per cent of the population now lives in poverty, according to the UN.

When he left Beirut, Johari was earning the equivalent of about $100 per month. In Iraq, he earns enough to support his family back home, he said.

Thousands flock to Iraq 

More than 20,000 Lebanese citizens arrived in Iraq between June 2021 and February 2022, excluding pilgrims visiting the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, according to the Iraqi authorities.

Lebanon's ambassador in Baghdad, Ali Habhab, said that movement from Lebanon to Iraq "has recently multiplied".

There are more than 900 Lebanese businesses now operating in Iraq, the majority of them in the restaurant trade, tourism and health, Habhab said. 

In particular, there have been "dozens of Lebanese doctors who offer their services" in Iraqi hospitals, he said.

Iraq's decades of conflict — from the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, to the US-led invasion of 2003 and subsequent sectarian conflict, and on to the rise of Daesh in 2014 — means that Baghdad might appear to be an unlikely magnet for those seeking to build a new life.

But since the country declared victory over Daesh in 2017, Iraq has slowly started to recover its stability.

Today, streets in Baghdad that once witnessed atrocities are buzzing with shops lining main thoroughfares and cafes open late into the night.

According to Iraqi economic expert Ali Al Rawi, many Lebanese companies came to Iraq because they "know the investment environment well", while many foreign companies from other countries "fear investing" because of its violent past.

"There is a lot of space for Lebanese enterprises in the Iraqi economy," he said.

But Iraqis themselves have seen their fair share of economic hardship.

In a country where 90 per cent of revenues come from oil sales, roughly a third of the population lives in poverty, according to the World Bank. 

In 2019, nationwide protests erupted across Iraq, driven by anger over rampant corruption, the absence of basic services and unemployment — similar factors behind protests in Lebanon that erupted around the same time.

Lebanese firms flourish 

Lebanon was once a prime destination for medical tourism, as Iraqis flocked to better equipped medical centres in Beirut and other cities.

But, as with other sectors, Lebanon's economic crisis has hit healthcare.

The Beirut Eye & ENT Specialist Hospital was once popular with Iraqi patients, but an official at the hospital, Michael Cherfan, said that "many doctors had left Lebanon".

The hospital responded to the crisis in the way many Lebanese have — by opening a branch in Baghdad, sparing Iraqis the trip to Beirut.

"Our doctors come on a rotating basis," Cherfan said. "Every week, one or two doctors come and do consultations and surgeries, earn some money and then return to Lebanon, which helps offset some of their losses."

For Johari, while the money he earns in Iraq supports his family, it comes with a bitter taste. He flies home once a month, but he misses his family.

"It saddens me a lot that I can't watch my two-month-old daughter grow up," he said.

MADRID — Marta Ortega on Friday took the reins of Zara-owner Inditex, the group founded by her father, and faces an immediate challenge after the fashion giant closed shops in Russia, its second biggest market.

With neither fanfare nor ceremony, the 38-year-old daughter of multibillionaire Amancio Ortega took over the world's biggest fashion retailer and its 6,500 shops. 

"I begin this stage...with a deep sense of responsibility," Ortega wrote in a letter to the 174,000 employees of the group, which has eight brands including Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Stradivarius. 

"I ask for your support and patience while I continue to learn from everyone every day," she added.

The youngest of Ortega's three children, she was in charge of design and product launches across all of Inditex's brands before becoming chairwoman on Friday, taking over from Pablo Isla who had run the group since her father retired in 2011. 

As her father's right hand, Isla oversaw Inditex's massive international expansion over the past decade. 

Marta Ortega's promotion has been on the cards for several years but was only announced at the end of November as part of a reorganisation engineered by her father, now 86.

"We've been preparing for this transition for a while," said Isla at the time. "Marta has been working in the company for 15 years... she knows it very well".

Described as discreet and reserved, Marta Ortega was born on January 10, 1984 to the billionaire and his second wife Flora Perez, growing up in La Coruna in north-western Spain with her half-sister Sandra and half-brother Marcos.

After attending a Swiss boarding school and graduating in 2007 from the European Business School in London, she briefly worked on the shop floor at a Zara store in the British capital to understand how things operate.

Although she never said she was the Inditex owner's daughter, her colleagues told El Pais newspaper they quickly figured it out after noticing her Rolex watch.

"The first week, I thought I was not going to survive. But then you get kind of addicted to the store" she told The Wall Street Journal in a rare interview in August 2021. 

When her appointment was initially announced in November, it caused concern in the business community, triggering a fall in the company's share price but such fears appear to have evaporated. 

Although she has never held an executive role at Inditex, she is "well prepared" and will be "surrounded by good people" said Alfred Vernis, professor at Spain's ESADE business school and a former Inditex executive.

Working with her is Oscar Garcia Maceiras, who recently took over as chief executive of Inditex barely a year after joining the group from Spanish banking giant Santander.

"He will be the one who takes executive decisions," said Vernis. 

Difficult moment 

The change at the top comes at a pivotal time for the Galicia-based company which has chalked up record profits in recent years but is now facing one of its most difficult moments. 

Worth some 62 billion euros, Inditex nearly tripled its profits last year to 3.2 billion euros, but its outlook for 2022 has been overshadowed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

At the start of March, the retail giant suspended all retail activity in Russia, its biggest market after Spain, shutting its 502 shops and suspending all online transactions. 

The move is likely to have a significant impact on its results, with the Russian market accounting for nearly 10 per cent of sales. 

"The current financial year promises to be very complex, due to Inditex's exposure in Russia and the rest of Europe" and "rising production costs" caused by record inflation, Credit Suisse said in a note.

Founded in 1985 by Amancio Ortega, Inditex must also strengthen its online offering in the face of stiff competition from other retailers. 

Above all, it must step up its "green transition" in order to reduce its environmental impact, which is huge. 

"Pablo Isla was doing it but not enough," said Vernis, indicating such an essential step "would cost" the company. 

Shares in Inditex closed up 1.67 percent at 20.11 euros.