Fujairah International Airport, in partnership with SalamAir of the Sultanate of Oman, has announced a series of charter flights to support travellers seeking to return home amid ongoing regional challenges.

The special humanitarian flights will operate via Muscat on March 4 and 5, 2026, connecting Fujairah with five major international destinations: Calicut, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Istanbul and Karachi, according to a WAM report.

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Bookings can be made directly through SalamAir’s official website or through authorised travel agents.

Coordinated response effort

Airport officials said the partnership underscores Fujairah International Airport’s continued commitment to facilitating humanitarian travel and ensuring safe, seamless passenger services during critical periods.

“The airport has worked closely with airline partners, ground handling teams and relevant authorities to ensure smooth operations and provide the highest levels of care throughout the repatriation process,” the report stated.

The airport added that it will continue coordinating with partners and stakeholders to monitor travel needs and respond swiftly to developments, reinforcing its role as a resilient aviation hub in the United Arab Emirates.

Blackstone’s flagship private credit fund faced a surge in withdrawals in the first quarter, as investor concerns over valuations and transparency in the fast-growing sector weighed on sentiment.

The New York-based investment firm allowed clients to withdraw $3.7bn from the $82bn Blackstone Private Credit Fund, known as BCRED, according to a filing on Monday. After $2bn of new commitments, net outflows totaled $1.7bn.

Blackstone’s shares fell as much as 8 per cent to a two-year low on Tuesday after it said redemption requests reached 7.9 per cent of the fund. The stock later pared losses to close down nearly 4 per cent. Shares of peers also declined before trimming losses, as broader U.S. indexes fell.

The firm said it raised its usual 5 per cent quarterly redemption cap to 7 per cent to meet demand. Blackstone and its employees invested $400m in the fund to help satisfy withdrawal requests.

More than 25 senior leaders across the firm contributed a combined $150m of that total, a person familiar with the matter said, confirming a report by Bloomberg News.

The $2tn private credit industry has expanded rapidly over the past decade, but has recently come under pressure over valuation practices and transparency. Investor jitters have also been fueled by developments at Blue Owl Capital, as well as past exposures within the sector to bankruptcies involving a US auto parts supplier and a subprime auto lender.

Wall Street lenders were further shaken by the collapse of UK mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions, reviving concerns about risks in parts of the private lending market.

Pressure builds on retail-facing credit funds

Funds such as BCRED, which cater to wealthy individuals, have faced particular strain. Like funds managed by Blue Owl, BCRED is structured as a business development company that raises capital and lends to mid-sized companies.

Analysts at JPMorgan said this marked the first quarterly outflow for BCRED, the largest non-traded fund of its kind, calling it a significant sign of weakening investor sentiment toward direct lending.

Investment bank RA Stanger, which tracks alternative assets including private equity and private credit, said it expects capital to shift away from private credit and forecasts about a 40 per cent year-on-year decline in business development company capital formation in 2026.

It compared the trend to 2023, when Blackstone limited withdrawals from a real estate fund aimed at wealthy investors.

About 24 per cent of Blackstone’s $1.27tn in assets under management comes from wealthy individuals, a segment asset managers have increasingly targeted as institutional investors such as pension funds moderate allocations.

Blackstone president Jon Grey told CNBC that products that allow periodic withdrawals involve a trade-off between liquidity and higher returns.

Institutional investors, who typically commit capital for longer periods, continue to allocate significant sums to private credit, he said.

Blackstone said its approach to handling redemptions was determined by the fund’s structure and not by constraints on BCRED’s liquidity.

Conflict in the Middle East and disruption in the Strait of Hormuz may last only a “matter of weeks”, according to a baseline scenario from ratings agency Moody’s.

In an insurance sector analysis published on Wednesday, Moody’s said the credit impact of the Iran conflict on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) insurers is expected to remain limited in the near term, assuming the disruption proves relatively short-lived.

The ratings agency said it expects the conflict to last “a matter of weeks”, with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and regional air traffic resuming at scale, helping contain immediate credit pressure on insurers across the region.

“Our baseline scenario is that the conflict will be relatively short-lived, likely a matter of weeks, and that navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and air traffic will then resume at scale,” Moody’s said.

Under this scenario, the agency added that GCC insurers would not face immediate material pressure on their credit profiles, even as markets react to geopolitical developments following US and Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February.

Investment portfolios the main risk channel

Moody’s said the primary transmission channel for financial stress would come through investment portfolios rather than underwriting losses. Any disruption to regional economic activity could weigh on asset prices, particularly equities and real estate, which form a significant portion of insurers’ investment holdings.

“The primary transmission channel for any conflict-related disruption for GCC insurers would be through their investment portfolios rather than their underwriting performance,” Moody’s said.

Within Moody’s rated portfolio of GCC insurers, around 40 per cent of the capital risk charge relates to asset risk, with real estate and equity exposures accounting for roughly one-third of that total. The agency estimates that a 20 per cent decline in real estate and equity valuations would reduce rated companies’ total equity by around 7 per cent, a level it said most insurers could absorb given existing capital buffers.

Direct claims from the conflict are also expected to remain limited because war risk is typically excluded from standard insurance policies across the GCC, Moody’s added. War-related coverage is generally provided through international markets such as London, particularly for marine cargo and energy shipments moving through routes including the Strait of Hormuz.

Risks rise if disruption drags on

However, Moody’s cautioned that a prolonged conflict could begin to weigh more heavily on the sector.

A longer disruption could trigger sharper asset price declines, weaker investor sentiment and slower economic growth, undermining insurance premium growth — a key factor supporting the sector’s currently stable outlook — while increasing pricing pressure across the market.

If sustained, combined investment losses and weaker underwriting margins could erode capital buffers and potentially weaken insurers’ credit outlooks, the agency said.

Moody’s also noted that global reinsurers could face higher exposure, particularly in marine hull and cargo insurance, where accumulation risk can arise if war-covered vessels are immobilised or damaged in close proximity.

OpenAI is considering a contract to deploy its AI technology on North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) “unclassified” networks, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, days after the ChatGPT-owner struck a deal with the Pentagon.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that OpenAI was considering an agreement with NATO.

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The newspaper said the OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, had initially said in a company meeting that it was looking to deploy on all NATO classified networks, but a company spokeswoman later clarified to the Journal that Altman misspoke and the contract opportunity was for NATO’s “unclassified networks.”

NATO, a 32-member military alliance, did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, Amazon and others, announced a deal late last week to deploy its technology in the Pentagon’s classified network, after US President Donald Trump directed the government to stop working with rival Anthropic.

Mass surveillance

Anthropic’s removal followed a standoff in contract talks with the Pentagon over the use of the firm’s technology. Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, had stressed the company’s opposition to the Pentagon using its AI models for mass domestic surveillance or to power fully autonomous weapons.

The Pentagon has said previously it had no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans or using AI to develop weapons that operate without human involvement, but wanted any lawful use of AI to be allowed.

In an updated statement on Monday after striking a deal on Friday, OpenAI said its AI systems “shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of US persons and nationals,” adding that the Pentagon also affirmed that AI services would not be used by intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA).

“I think this was an example of a complex, but right decision with extremely difficult brand consequences and very negative PR for us in the short term,” Altman said in a company meeting on Tuesday, referring to the Pentagon deal, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Downtime that impacted some UAE banks’ digital services earlier this week is steadily being resolved, with lenders maintaining operations as the region navigates geopolitical tensions.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) confirmed on Wednesday that its retail mobile banking application is now successfully restored after a disruption that lasted around 48 hours.

The outage impacted the bank’s retail mobile banking app and customer contact centre.

However, ADCB said all other services — including branches, ATMs, card services, web-based internet banking, and corporate and commercial banking platforms — remained fully operational throughout the disruption.

“The reliability of our banking services is fundamental to the trust our customers place in us, and our teams worked tirelessly around the clock to restore services safely and as quickly as possible,” said Ala’a Eraiqat, group CEO of ADCB Group.

“While our systems are robust, we are taking this opportunity to further strengthen our operational resilience and service infrastructure to ensure we continue to deliver the high standards of reliability and service our customers expect from ADCB, even in unlikely extreme situations like this,” he added.

The bank said most mobile banking features are now available again, while some minor services continue to be progressively restored as systems return to full capacity.

Meanwhile, Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) said its operations have remained uninterrupted.

“All banking services, systems, digital platforms, and customer engagement channels remain fully operational, with no disruption to branch, digital, or remote banking services,” the bank said in a statement.

Dr Bernd van Linder, CEO of CBD, said the bank continues to operate normally across all channels.

“Our priority is to deliver uninterrupted banking services and maintain consistently strong customer interactions across branches, digital channels and all relationship-managed platforms,” he said.

“We are operating normally across all branches and channels, supported by a strong liquidity position and a robust capital base.”

Earlier disruptions across UAE banking services

The reassurances come after reported disruptions affecting several UAE banking services earlier this week.

Customers experienced difficulty accessing phone and digital banking services linked to Emirates NBD, Emirates Islamic, First Abu Dhabi Bank and ADCB. Banks cited a region-wide IT disruption at the time, though the exact cause has not been confirmed.

The issues occurred amid Amazon Web Services (AWS) confirming that its facilities in the UAE and Bahrain had been impacted by drone strikes amid the wider Middle East conflict.

However, it remains unclear whether the cloud disruption was directly linked to the banking outages.

Despite the temporary issues, banks said core services remained accessible through alternative channels such as internet banking, branches and ATMs.

Financial institutions are also urging customers to remain vigilant against fraud attempts during the current situation.

Several banks, including HSBC UAE, have warned that scammers may attempt to impersonate government entities or authorities to obtain personal data such as Emirates ID details or banking credentials.

Banks stressed that customers should never share sensitive information through unsolicited calls or messages, and should verify communications only through official government or bank channels.