KLM added that it remained available to repatriate stranded travellers, a process handled through the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

International News via Reuters:

Dutch airline KLM has canceled all flights to Dubai until March 28 due to the war in the Middle East, it said on Wednesday.

“Due to the ongoing geopolitical unrest in the Middle East, KLM has decided to cancel all flights to Dubai through March 28th”, KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, said.

KLM added that it remained available to repatriate stranded travellers, a process handled through the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout. Editing by Mark Potter

Police said the bus became engulfed in flames on Tuesday evening on a road in Kerzers, a town of about 5,000 inhabitants in the western canton of Fribourg

International News via Reuters:

At least six people died and three were injured in a bus fire in Switzerland possibly caused by someone setting fire to themself.

Police said the bus became engulfed in flames on Tuesday evening on a road in Kerzers, a town of about 5,000 inhabitants in the western canton of Fribourg, about 20 km (12 miles) from the Swiss capital Bern.

“At this stage, we have elements suggesting a deliberate act by a person who was inside the bus,” said Frederic Papaux, a spokesperson for Fribourg police.

Investigators were looking into reports that a person had poured fuel on themselves, said Christa Bielmann, another local police spokesperson. It was too early to say whether the incident was terrorism-related, she told a press conference.

“We have no indication that suggests we might be dealing with a terrorist attack,” Romain Collaud, a local politician in Fribourg, told the Swiss-French broadcaster RTS. 

Three injured people were taken to hospital, police said. Two others caught in the blaze also received attention but did not need to be hospitalised.

Passengers had been seen escaping from the burning bus, panicked and injured, Papaux said. Video after the flames were extinguished showed the charred remains of the yellow vehicle.

Swiss media outlet 20 Minutes said it had seen a video taken at the scene in which an injured person said: “A man set himself on fire. He poured gasoline over himself and then lit himself.”

Mina Gendre was about to close up the shop she works in when she saw the bus, which had stopped unexpectedly across the road, had a small fire inside. 

Within half a minute or so, it burst into flames, she said.

“It was so shocking,” said Gendre. “I saw someone come running out of the bus on fire.”

With smoke billowing out of the bus, Gendre shut the door of the shop to protect it as bystanders helped put out the fire on the person with a jacket, she said.

SHOCKED TOWN 

Vanessa Liuzzi, 37, a local resident who left flowers at the scene, said the story doing the rounds was that someone had set fire to themselves. 

“That’s what people are saying. And that things have got to the point where there are attacks or attempts on people’s lives is obviously really sad. No one thought that it could happen here in Kerzers,” she said.

“I’m shocked, I’m sad, I’m in despair,” she said.

Margrit Schneider, an 82-year-old local resident, fought back tears at the scene. “I’ve been here 65 years, something like this has never happened here before,” she said.  

The identification of the six people who died could take several days, Collaud said, adding it was not known if the person suspected of starting the fire was among the victims. 

Nirosan Vickneswaran, 37, was waiting anxiously for news of his cousin who was on the bus when it went up in flames.

“We don’t know if he’s injured or worse,” he said.

Police had taken DNA samples from the family and indicated it might take up to 48 hours to find out, he said.

“All we know is that somebody set fire to themselves,” he added.

A memorial was being erected in the village square, Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve reported.

The head of the bus company Postauto, Stefan Regli, said it was a terrible tragedy and extended his condolences.

“All Postauto and Swiss Post employees, like myself, are shocked and deeply saddened,” Regli said in a statement.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin offered his condolences and said the incident was being investigated. 

“It shocks and saddens me that once again people have lost their lives in a serious fire in Switzerland,” he said in a statement on X, noting investigations were under way.

In January, Switzerland was rocked by a fire in a bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana that killed 41 ​people and injured 115.

“The wounds from Crans-Montana are still fresh, fuelling strong reactions today,” Collaud said. “These are clearly events no one wants to experience, or relive. Yet they seem part of everyday life now, happening more frequently in Switzerland and worldwide, which is unfortunate,” he told RTS. 

Reporting by Dave Graham in Kerzers, Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva; additional reporting by Cecile Mantovani; Editing by Alex Richardson and Andrew Cawthorne

Jet fuel prices, which were around $85 to $90 per barrel before U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, have soared to between $150 and $200

International News via Reuters:

Australia’s Qantas Airways, Scandinavia’s SAS and Air New Zealand announced airfare hikes on Tuesday, blaming an abrupt spike in the cost of fuel caused by the Middle East conflict that is rattling global aviation.

Jet fuel prices, which were around $85 to $90 per barrel before U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, have soared to between $150 and $200, New Zealand’s flag carrier said as it suspended its financial outlook for 2026 due to uncertainty over the conflict.

The war has disrupted a key oil-export corridor, driving up airline costs, pushing fares higher on some routes and deepening concern about a broader hit to global travel.

“Increases of this magnitude make it necessary to react in order to maintain stable and reliable operations,” an SAS spokesperson said, adding it had implemented a “temporary price adjustment.”

The largest Scandinavian airline last year temporarily adjusted its fuel hedging policy due to uncertain market conditions and said that it had no fuel consumption hedged for the following 12 months.

Several Asian and European airlines, including Lufthansa and Ryanair, have oil hedging in place, securing a part of their fuel supplies at fixed prices.

Finnair, which had hedged over 80% of its first-quarter fuel purchases, warned that even the availability of fuel could be at risk if the conflict dragged on.

“A prolonged crisis could affect not only the price of fuel but also its availability, at least temporarily,” a Finnair spokesperson said, adding that this was not happening yet.

Kuwait, a major jet fuel exporter to north-west Europe, has faced output cuts.

AIRSPACE CHAOS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Highlighting the airspace chaos in the Middle East, planes arriving in Dubai were briefly placed in a holding pattern on Tuesday due to a potential missile attack, flight tracking service Flightradar24 said on X. The planes eventually landed.

Airlines are already adjusting networks and prices in response. Qantas said it was exploring redeploying capacity to Europe as airlines and passengers seek to evade disruptions in the Middle East, while Cathay Pacific said it would add flights to London and Zurich in March as airspace closures and capacity constraints drive up fares on Asia-Europe routes.

Air New Zealand said it has raised fares across domestic, short‑haul and long‑haul routes, warning that further price or schedule changes may follow if jet‑fuel costs remain elevated. Hong Kong Airlines also announced it will increase fuel surcharges by up to 35.2% starting Thursday.

Air India​ said on ‌Tuesday it would begin a phased increase of fuel surcharges on its domestic and international routes, citing rising jet‑fuel prices.

Some European carriers said they saw no immediate need to raise prices. IAG, the owner of British Airways, said it was well hedged for the near term and had no plans to adjust fares. British Airways, however, said it had brought forward the end of its winter-season flights to Abu Dhabi because of the “continuing uncertainty.”

AIRLINE SHARES STABILISE AFTER SELLOFF

Some airline stocks rose as oil prices fell to around $90 a barrel on Tuesday from a high of $119 on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday the war could be over soon.

In Europe, airline shares were up between 4% and 7%. Shares of major U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines were down between 1% and 2% in afternoon trade.

Most major U.S. airlines no longer hedge their fuel costs, unlike European and Asian carriers that continue to maintain active hedging programs. Fuel is typically their second-largest expense after labor.

Without the protection of fuel hedges, airlines have little choice but to lean on higher fares to offset rising costs. Deutsche Bank’s latest data shows U.S. airfares climbing quickly, with both last-minute tickets and advance-purchase fares surging over the past week.

With passenger traffic continuing to outpace the growth in airline seat capacity, and some carriers forecasting record spring break demand, analysts say the backdrop should help the market absorb higher fares.

Rising fuel costs are also expected to push airlines to slow their growth plans, effectively boosting their pricing power. Still, it remains unclear whether these steps will be enough to fully protect profit margins.

Major U.S. carriers are widely expected to update their outlooks ahead of an industry conference next week, but some analysts have already trimmed their profit and capacity forecasts for the current quarter and the full year. Analysts at Melius, for example, have cut their net‑income estimates by 10%.

CONFLICTS SHRINKING AVAILABLE AIRSPACE

In addition to high fuel costs, tightening airspace also threatens to derail the global travel industry, as pilots reroute to avoid the Middle East conflict and capacity on popular routes fills up.

Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad typically jointly account for about one-third of the passenger traffic between Europe and Asia and fly more than half of all passengers from Europe to Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands, according to Cirium.

European airlines have already struggled with the shortage of available airspace created by the war in Ukraine, with many avoiding Russian airspace and flying longer international routes. Now, with even less available airspace, they say their business has become even more challenging.

($1 = 7.8236 Hong Kong dollars)

Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri, Shivansh Tiwary Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru, Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago, Julie Zhu in Hong Kong, Heekyong Yang and Hyun Joo Jin in Seoul, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen, Essi Lehto in Helsinki, Panarat Thepgumpanat in Bangkok, Sam Tabahriti and Khanh Vu in Hanoi; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree, Joanna Plucinska and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Jamie Freed, Tomasz Janowski and Nick Zieminski

Poland was the biggest beneficiary of the EU’s 150-billion-euro Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative

International News via Reuters:

Poland will be able to use profits from central bank gold and foreign exchange reserves instead of EU loans to boost military spending, according to a bill proposed by the president on Tuesday that drew a rebuke from Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Poland was the biggest beneficiary of the EU’s 150-billion-euro Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative, but the nationalist opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) labelled it a German plot to meddle in Polish affairs that would saddle Warsaw with debt and limit its flexibility regarding arms purchases.

President Karol Nawrocki, an ally of PiS, has proposed a plan to use Polish funds instead of the European Union loans.

“The funds generated by the National Bank of Poland, resulting from the market valuation of Polish gold and currency reserves, are to be allocated directly to financing defence purposes through a newly established fund,” according to Nawrocki’s bill, which was submitted to parliament on Tuesday.

Parliament, where Tusk’s pro-European government has a majority, is unlikely to approve the bill, but the row highlights the deep divisions at the top of the Polish state.

Tusk says the cheap financing provided by SAFE is essential to Poland’s security in the face of what it views as a rising threat from Russia.

“This (presidential) bill has no money – it has a new body, a council, new bureaucracy, and dozens of unnecessary regulations,” Tusk told reporters.

Nawrocki has criticised the government’s own bill, which creates a mechanism by which the 43.7 billion euros ($50.86 billion) made available to Poland under ‘SAFE’ would be disbursed. He has not yet said whether he will veto it.

If Nawrocki does veto that bill, the government is preparing a “plan B” that would still allow Poland to access SAFE funds, Tusk said earlier on Tuesday, without elaborating.

Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz, Marek StrzeleckiEditing by Gareth Jones