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It’s so hard to get your hands on an Hermès Birkin bag it should be illegal.

That’s according to two would-be Birkin buyers who filed a complaint against the French luxury brand in a Northern California district court on March 19.

The pair have accused Hermès of exploiting the “incredible market power” that comes from the “unique desirability, incredible demand and low supply” of its most prestigious bag to drive up prices and increase their own profits. The plaintiffs allege that access to Hermès’ perpetually sold-out Birkin bag is predicated on the purchase of other products, resulting in an “illegal tying arrangement” that violates US antitrust law.

Hermès’ enigmatic selling practices — where the most desirable items like Birkin and Kelly bags are offered intermittently and usually to clients who already have a purchase history at the brand — have been endlessly dissected in fashion circles, and more recently have become the subject of countless TikTok videos and Reddit threads about how to play “the Hermès game,” where creators offer tips on how to get their hands on prestigious Hermès items through carefully coordinated interactions with sales associates.

Tightly controlled distribution and scarcity helped make the Birkin one of fashion’s most consistently covetable products and an asset class all its own (prices can more than double at resale). Hermès’ ultra-exclusive positioning has allowed it to keep outperforming the market even as most other luxury brands see demand slowing from post-pandemic highs. Revenue rose 21 percent year-over-year in 2023, while net profit was up 28 percent. But now, it’s potentially landed the brand in legal trouble.

Last year, Hermès told BoF it “strictly prohibits any sale of certain products as a condition to the purchase of others.” Whether the case will go to trial remains to be seen. Still, the complaint could have implications across the industry. Other brands, including Rolex, Chanel and Celine have fielded similar accusations (if not legal complaints), particularly in China, where shoppers have decried rising barriers of entry to sought-after products.

BoF unpacks Hermès’ selling system and what the lawsuit means for the Birkin-maker and beyond.

Like most luxury houses, Hermès tightly controls its distribution — it sells its leather goods only through its own stores, where stock is never marked down. Birkin and Kelly handbags in particular aren’t sold online and sometimes aren’t even displayed in stores.

The brand’s retail experience varies from city to city; local Hermès staff are given a long leash to determine how its handbags — for which demand outstrips supply — are doled out. Some bags are allocated via waitlists, others offered at the sales associate’s discretion (many shoppers vie for attention by trying to seem extra stylish or wealthy). Others are reportedly sold on a first-come-first-serve basis (particularly at the brand’s original flagship store in Paris). Clients’ preferences are registered, but when customers are offered a particular Birkin, they don’t necessarily get to choose the style or colour.

The ambiguity of the process has sparked speculation around who gets a bag and why. TikToks, YouTube videos and Reddit threads on the “Hermès game” detail shoppers’ paths to nabbing so-called “quota bags” (even the most loyal Hermès customers are only allowed to indulge in these styles limited times a year). Creators offer advice on what to say, how to dress and when and where to go to better their chances of scoring. Customers share theories about how much to spend on lipsticks, sweaters, sandals and dog beds to secure an offer or a preferred style — with some estimates climbing into the tens of thousands. Other commentators share reproof for Hermès’ manufactured exclusion of shoppers from already exclusionary-priced products.

“You have to buy their shoes, their pillows … that little $900 horse to show your appreciation for the brand,” said one TikTok user. Another referred to the process as “pledging allegiance to the brand.”

Others tell stories of snagging sought-after bags without spending heavily on other items, suggesting that the alleged practices are not completely systematic — or that the most vocal shoppers are choosing to go overboard (perhaps because they are unwilling to wait months for a bag offer).

Hermès can only produce so many of the handbags each year, and it has to decide who gets them somehow.

“[Hermès] is driven by supply, not demand ...” said Erwan Rambourg, global head of consumer and retail research at HSBC. “It is not going to wave a magic wand and suddenly be able to produce a lot of products.”

Saving them for their biggest — or highest-spending — clients could simply be savvy business. Plus, it drives mystique.

The system could help to preserve balance between leather goods and other categories in Hermès’ business — which has long been a priority for the company, as it employs thousands of French artisans specialised in skills like weaving silks, painting enamel bracelets or even silk-screening its leopard-motif beach towels.

A more balanced sales mix and long waitlist for key products help the brand maintain consistency year-over-year, making it more appealing to investors.

Prioritising clients who spend heavily on other categories also could de-incentivise resellers looking to flip bags for a profit.

Those resellers pose a looming challenge for the brand: As more people can get the exact Birkin they want with the click of a button online, Hermès will have to find more ways to drive excitement for its products beyond how hard it is to get them.

Counsel for the plaintiffs (the legal teams at California-based Setareh Law Group and Haffner Law) claim Hermès is in violation of US antitrust regulations that prohibit abuse of market power through bundling goods or tying them to other purchases. Tying occurs when the sale of one product is made on the condition of purchase of another product. A seller also must have enough market power to restrain the free trade of a good. Microsoft, for example, was accused of the same type of antitrust violation for compelling users of its operating system to also use its browser in the 1990s.

Longi founder Li Zhenguo is laying off thousands of staff in an industry grappling with oversupply

In December last year, Chinese solar panel billionaire Li Zhenguo addressed the UN climate change conference in Dubai, promising a “benevolent and equitable” energy system to support the world’s decarbonisation.

“The opportunities for everyone to contribute to the fight against climate change through renewable energy solutions are boundless,” Li said.

But three months later, the founder of Longi Green Energy Technology has been forced into retreat as a result of a global supply glut, firing thousands of factory workers and new office staff as the industry grapples with a collapse in prices. In China, the lay-offs have sparked criticism of the company’s corporate culture.

Longi, one of the world’s biggest solar panel manufacturers, said last week it expected to cut 5 per cent of its 80,000-strong workforce after Bloomberg reported the company was planning to slash 30 per cent of its staff. Longi said the 30 per cent figure was “false”, though experts said the eventual job losses were likely to be higher than 5 per cent after solar module prices halved over the past year.

The pressure on Li comes after a production boom in China resulted in oversupply. The job cuts threaten to test Li’s reputation with the government in Beijing at a time of slowing economic growth and concerns about industrial overcapacity. Overseas, he faces a world increasingly polarised by China’s dominance of global supply chains for renewable technology, including electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels.

Li graduated from Lanzhou University, in China’s northern Gansu province, in 1990. He initially worked at a state-owned computer chip factory before founding Longi. Two of his university classmates serve as company executives.

Longi was one of several Chinese companies, private and state-backed, that accounted for more than 80 per cent of global solar production, the result of decades of deep state support and rapid domestic growth. Listed in Shanghai in 2012, it reported annual revenues of nearly Rmb130bn ($18bn) in 2022, up from Rmb54bn in 2020.

As of October, Li and his wife Xiyan were worth about $5.7bn, ranking just outside the 100 richest people in China, according to the Hurun Research Institute, a group tracking wealth in China.

Experts said Li’s fortune reflected the success of a series of breakthroughs in solar materials and manufacturing that have significantly improved the efficiency and longevity of solar panels. Longi’s advances include the replacement of polycrystalline material with monocrystalline in solar panels, allowing greater power production, as well as diamond wire cutting technology, which reduces the time and cost of manufacturing.

Li plays an important role in the Chinese Communist party’s plan to boost the country’s energy security, said Alex Payette, chief executive of Cercius Group, a consultancy that specialises in elite Chinese politics.

“It is important to remember that Li Zhenguo directly plays his part in Xi Jinping’s self-sufficiency, domestic self-innovation programme — to secure China’s own supply chains — and of course, military-civilian integration strategy,” Payette said.

The solar industry is cyclical, resulting in periods of boom and bust. Analysts have warned that massive job cuts across the industry are inevitable after several years of excessive focus on output rather than on sustainable profits.

Xuyang Dong of Climate Energy Finance, an Australian think-tank, noted that at of the start of this year, China had more than 1,000GW of solar module production capacity in development for domestic and international markets, a far higher amount than current domestic demand. China needs around 280-320GW of new solar capacity a year until 2030 to reach its dual carbon targets.

“The amount of money saved by laying off staff is insufficient compared to the 40-50 per cent decline in prices in the market over the last 12 months,” she said.

Dennis She, a Longi vice-president, told the Financial Times last month that the company’s factory utilisation rate had fallen to as low as 70 per cent and that industry consolidation was likely to follow.

“You have to be very tough at this moment,” he warned, adding that the company would try to increase its market share as smaller companies and newer entrants to the industry struggle to survive.

The Chinese solar industry’s expansion is coming under increasing scrutiny, especially in the US and Europe. In January, Brussels said it was considering emergency support measures after a flood of cheap Chinese equipment sparked a series of factory closures.

That same month, a bipartisan group of US senators called on President Joe Biden to increase tariffs on Chinese-made solar imports. In August, the US Department of Commerce found Chinese producers, including Longi subsidiary Vina Solar, “were attempting to avoid the payment of US duties by completing minor processing in third countries”.

However, there are few signs that the company’s global ambitions have been dented, said experts. Longi already has factories in Vietnam and Malaysia, a joint venture with Invenergy in Ohio and sales offices in the US, Australia, Japan, India and the UAE. It is also in talks to enter Saudi Arabia through a local partner.

Yanmei Xie, a China analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Gavekal Research, said Longi had proved itself to be “quite adaptable” through several rounds of tariffs levelled at Chinese solar companies by Europe and the US over the past 15 years.

“This is not a new wave of protectionism. The international backlash against Chinese solar exports started quite a while ago and mostly has proven to be fairly ineffective,” she said.

Li and his lieutenants are trying to convince governments they risk slower decarbonisation of their economies if they restrict Chinese companies from their renewable energy supply chains. They argue China should not be seen as a threat to the energy security of other countries.

“China is not going to export sunshine,” said She.

The technology is transforming all areas of the sector, with new roles generated and more traditional, lower-skilled jobs at possible risk

Energy companies are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence technology to improve the efficiency and sustainability of their operations. And it is already transforming critical functions: from lowering carbon emissions to mitigating cyber attacks and predicting mechanical failures.

In the process, the technology is generating new job opportunities, for AI ethics specialists, software developers and data engineers across the sector. However, experts warn that AI could also displace more traditional energy jobs.  

Use cases: emissions monitoring, infrastructure routing, supply management, cyber defence  

With energy-related carbon dioxide emissions reaching 37.4bn tonnes for the first time last year — an increase of 410mn tonnes, or 1.1 per cent, on 2022 levels — many companies are exploring ways AI in which can help reduce their carbon footprint.

Shell, for example, has developed an AI tool for monitoring methane emissions. This “uses wind and concentration data to help us understand the origin and quantity released”, explains Dan Jeavons, vice-president of computational science and digital innovation at the oil and gas company.

AI will optimise the efficiency of energy systems by “reducing the amount of power needed to be generated”, he adds. It could also create “entirely new low carbon-footprint energy systems” and enable suppliers to monitor greenhouse gas sinks. 

Gert Vermeiren, European managing director of environment, water and energy at global infrastructure consulting firm Aecom, says AI will improve the cost-effectiveness and accuracy of energy infrastructure. Engineers, for instance, working on pipelines and power lines could use AI to “generate a viable route shortlist in seconds” instead of several days. 

In addition, AI offers operations engineers “a more strategic, whole-grid view of supply”, allowing them to analyse energy generation and usage patterns to “plan supply more efficiently” and balance the “use of different sources of low carbon generation in a dynamic environment”. He adds: “For the customer, this means supply is much more reliable.”

Energy asset managers can benefit from AI tools, making it possible to predict system failures and inspect and repair them accordingly. “This not only addresses productivity gains but safety as well,” says Vermeiren.

Scotland-based provider SSE has found AI-powered energy forecasting to be extremely useful. It is using technology to “forecast energy usage at the distribution system operator level” and analyse “future energy demand at a local level”, notes SSE Energy Solutions digital services director Eunice Mabey. It gives businesses “greater accuracy and certainty on their future energy demand and cost while enabling energy flexibility”. 

The company is also using AI for optimising large energy generation systems in the healthcare and academic sectors. “It [AI] analyses past energy performance and operation to produce optimised running schedules to lower energy costs and carbon emissions,” Mabey explains.

Mona Schroedel, a managing associate at UK law firm Freeths, says AI-powered algorithms could streamline energy trading research — by “surveying enormous swaths of information and detecting patterns and anomalies”. She suggests the technology could help energy companies monitor and detect cyber security threats, as well, which are increasing in scale and sophistication. 

Amanda Ahl, grids and utilities associate at the energy transition research body Bloomberg NEF, expects AI to “play a larger role in grid design and planning”. Ahl says this “accounted for 7 per cent of AI activities in the power sector in 2023”. 

Jobs created: systems modellers, ethics officers, cyber security experts

As energy companies continue integrating AI into day-to-day operations, many will require staff with the data science and AI development skills to create “the next generation of predictive models”, according to Dr Augustine Ikpehai, senior lecturer in electrical and electronic systems at Sheffield Hallam University.

Muhammad Wakil Shahzad, assistant professor in Northumbria University’s mechanical and construction engineering department, agrees that system modeller engineers will be in demand. Companies will need people who can apply AI and computational modelling to “simulate and optimise complex energy and end-use systems”, he says, as well as data analysts who can “extract insights to optimise energy production, distribution and consumption”.

But, to ensure AI algorithms are not used for the wrong reasons, energy companies must appoint AI ethics officers, too, argues Derreck Van Gelderen, AI energy lead at management consultancy PA Consulting. He says their job will be to ensure “AI systems are designed and used in a fair, transparent and responsible manner”.

Cyber security professionals will also play a bigger role in keeping future energy infrastructure safe from rising online threats, according to Kumar Parakala, president of digital transformation specialists GHD Digital: “As bad actors become more sophisticated in their attacks on critical infrastructure, including the energy sector, the demand for cyber security skills will increase in a bid to be one step ahead in knowledge, skills and approach.”

Jobs lost: inspection and maintenance staff 

While the rise of AI-powered energy systems and infrastructure will generate new jobs, this could come at the cost of more traditional roles. Ikpehai expects AI to displace low-skilled energy jobs, in particular. 

Energy companies could, for example, use drones and computer vision systems for manually inspecting transmission lines and pipes. However, humans will still need to check and review the results generated by such systems, he adds.  

Traditional inspection and maintenance roles that expose people to hazardous working environments should be automated, says Van Gelderen. He points out that the Sellafield nuclear waste management plant in Cumbria is using an AI-powered robot to keep its operators “out of harm’s way”.

But it is likely the petroleum sector will suffer most from AI-related job losses, says Parakala. In this area, mechanical work is “being replaced by robotics and AI automation”.  

More generally, AI will automate repetitive maintenance tasks in areas such as energy plant operations and tasks conducted by junior supervisors, according to Tom Fairbairn, distinguished engineer at real-time data platform Solace. But, he adds, energy workers affected by these job losses could upskill in areas “where human judgment, creativity, and problem-solving skills are irreplaceable”. 

Transformative changes are still 10 to 15 years away, experts predict

When Robert Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, reflects on the extent to which healthcare jobs will be disrupted by artificial intelligence, he recalls an apocalyptic speech given by the British-Canadian computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton.

Hinton sent shockwaves through specialist medical education with his warning in 2016: “We should stop training radiologists now. It’s just completely obvious that, within five years, deep learning is going to do better.”

The technology seemed so good that it would soon replace humans. But the reality has been rather different. Beyond a few applications — for example, in mammography and colonoscopy — evidence of AI’s superiority over doctors remains thin. Human intervention is still essential.

“Eight years out, we can’t hire enough radiologists, there’s so much demand,” points out Wachter, who is also a director of the Josiah Macy Foundation, which focuses on medical education. “AI is not perfect; and, in malpractice, you want to sue a human.”

AI has the potential to significantly transform employment in many aspects of healthcare — from basic research to clinical care, patient monitoring and medical administration. But Wachter’s comments are a reminder that its impact in transforming human roles and the timescales for such changes to take effect remain far from certain.

“I’m most impressed by our ignorance on AI,” says Wachter. “It has speeded up mammography, but there are lots of areas where it is not quite as good. Diagnosis is not just looking at digital dots but understanding and placing them in the clinical context. The number of scans is growing faster than AI is advancing.”

AI — and notably generative AI — offers considerable potential for improving treatments. Some breakthroughs have already been felt. In drug development, there has been much buzz around the identification of compounds such as treatments for antibiotic resistance. In 2021, a first practical example emerged of AI identifying a drug that has been put into practice: baricitinib, an existing treatment for rheumatoid arthritis was shown to be a way to treat complications of Covid-19.

Overall, consultants McKinsey estimated in a report in January that AI could generate $60bn-$110bn a year for the pharmaceutical and medical-product industries by identifying compounds for possible new drugs, speeding their development and approval, and improving the way they are marketed.

McKinsey showed that since ChatGPT’s release in late 2022, the number of AI-related job listings has quadrupled. The number of positions offered grew by 43 per cent annually across the top 10 pharmaceutical companies alone since 2018.

The consultancy highlighted AI’s capabilities, including knowledge extraction, content and compound generation, customer engagement, and coding and software generation. McKinsey attributes these strengths to “gen AI’s truly multimodal nature: foundational models are built not just on language but also on images, omics [data analysis of an entire biological system], patient information, and other types of data”.

A report by the Brookings Institution pointed to AI’s roles in functions including post-treatment monitoring and follow-up, and in routine information gathering, particularly through the collection of information via chatbots by “engaging with patients in understandable language, resolving uncertainties, and summarising data for healthcare providers”.

Eric Topol, executive vice-president at Scripps Research, says: “AI is hugely transformational but these things always take longer than you might project.” Yet he already sees some applications elsewhere in his own medical practice.

These include note-taking in consultations — freeing doctors from their keyboards to spend more time and eye contact with patients. “That gives the physician the ability to get rid of all notes, tackle [their own] memory issues that are often a problem.”

Future doctors and other healthcare workers should not despair about their own displacement or redundancy. As a recent Pew Research survey highlighted, 60 per cent of Americans would be uncomfortable with their doctors or other providers relying on AI for their healthcare.

“We’ll always have human oversight — you are always going to want to talk to an experienced, empathetic physician,” says Topol. “Doctors, since before Hippocrates, ruled the roost and tended to be control freaks. The digital era has propelled the patient into a power position . . . we’re going to see that trend of democratisation get into high gear.”

He also sees technology driving changes to human medical recruitment, and training. “We were picking brainiacs to be physicians. We need people with deep empathy.” But he adds that far greater education is needed around AI. “It requires a reboot of our curriculum. There is no medical school in this country that has fully incorporated AI.”

Wachter adds: “I do believe that AI will be transformative, but healthcare is so stressed, [cash-]strapped and expensive that for the next 10 or 15 years it is unlikely whole medical groups will get fired. So much is wasteful, there is so much friction. Healthcare and education are the two fields that have been slowest for AI. There are no unemployed doctors or nurses.”

Fund manager holds lower than normal position in longer-dated US bonds, and prefers UK, Australia and Canada

Bond fund giant Pimco is holding a smaller than usual position in US Treasuries and prefers the bonds of countries such as the UK and Canada, as it believes inflationary pressures may lead the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates more slowly than other major central banks.

Andrew Balls, chief investment officer for global fixed income at the $1.9tn-in-assets firm, told the Financial Times that weaker economic growth in some countries is helping ease price pressures there faster than in the US.

“Outside of the US . . . we are seeing more evidence of inflation correcting,” he said. “I think you see the balance of risks on the Fed going slower [in cutting rates] than is priced in but outside the US there is some risk of central banks delivering more than is priced in.”

Balls prefers longer-dated government bonds — which are more sensitive to changes in interest rates — outside of the US, and holds a smaller position than the benchmark index in the US. Markets currently anticipate three 0.25 percentage point cuts by the Fed and Bank of England this year, while for the European Central Bank it is closer to four.

US inflation has come in above analysts’ forecasts in January and February this year. Last week, Fed chair Jay Powell played down the recent uptick as the US central bank stuck to its forecast of 0.75 percentage points of interest rate cuts this year.

Powell also suggested it was too soon to know whether recent signs of stickier than expected inflation, especially in the services sector, would last. But he said he did not think recent readings had “really changed the overall story” of price pressures easing to 2 per cent.

Balls said that while his baseline expectations for inflation and Fed rate cuts were similar to market consensus, he sees “the risks towards stronger activity and sticky inflation.

“You have an ongoing US exceptionalism theme,” he added.

He also warned that the US’s yawning budget deficit — which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will rise by almost two-thirds over the next decade to $2.6tn — would be likely to push up long-dated Treasury yields, reflecting a fall in prices.

Ten-year US borrowing costs have risen to 4.2 per cent from 3.9 per cent at the start of the year, but remain far below a peak of more than 5 per cent reached last October when markets were worried about bigger than expected government borrowing plans.

“You can imagine that happening again,” Balls said, referring to the rise in yields last autumn.

“Both the Democrats and the Republicans seem unconcerned about the level of the fiscal deficit . . . It does seem likely that without having something exciting happening [like the UK’s 2022 gilts crisis] you could have a slow grind to higher term premia.”

Balls said his preferred places to have exposure to bonds more sensitive to changes in interest rates were in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In December the FT reported that Pimco’s chief investment officer believed the UK was at risk of a serious economic downturn and that he had been running larger than usual bets on gilts.

Last week the Bank of England kept rates at 5.25 per cent for a fifth consecutive meeting, as widely expected. However, in a surprise to markets, the two most hawkish rate-setters on the monetary policy committee fell in line with the majority and voted to keep rates on hold, while one member voted for a cut.

BoE governor Andrew Bailey told the FT last week that markets are right to expect more than one rate cut this year and he is increasingly confident inflation is heading towards target.

Balls said his funds have a larger than normal position in gilts and he is not worried about a potential borrowing splurge ahead of a general election. In contrast, in 2019 he warned that a post-election borrowing binge promised by all major political parties could add to pressure on prices.

“I think both sides will have very similar fiscal policy and in the post [former prime minister] Liz Truss environment we tend to expect the UK to be very orthodox in terms of fiscal policy,” he said, referring to the 2022 gilts crisis triggered by an announced £45bn of unfunded tax cuts.

The former chief executive of the co-working space provider said last month he was aiming to put together a bid

Adam Neumann, the former chief executive and co-founder of WeWork, recently submitted an offer to buy the bankrupt co-working company for more than $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

It wasn’t immediately clear how Neumann would finance the acquisition, the people familiar with the matter said.

Neumann has been trying to regain control of WeWork after he was ousted five years ago by the board. Last month, Neumann’s lawyers sent a letter to WeWork’s advisers saying he was joining with Dan Loeb’s Third Point hedge fund and other investors in exploring a bid for the company.

Third Point isn’t part of Neumann’s bid, the people familiar with the matter said Monday.

A fund spokeswoman previously said the hedge fund hadn’t made a commitment to participate in any transaction and had only preliminary conversations with Flow Global, Neumann’s real-estate company.

WeWork, which had been valued as high as $47 billion before it filed for chapter 11 in November, remains focused on its restructuring effort to emerge from bankruptcy in the second quarter as a “financially strong and profitable company,” a company spokesman said.

“As we’ve said previously, WeWork is an extraordinary company and it’s no surprise we receive expressions of interest from third parties on a regular basis,” the WeWork spokesman said. “Our board and our advisers review those approaches in the ordinary course, to ensure we always act in the best long-term interests of the company.”

WeWork filed for bankruptcy after struggling to stay afloat in the office real-estate market downturn. It has been trying to renegotiate existing leases with landlords to reduce its operating costs, while rejecting ones that aren’t profitable, but the talks have been slow-moving.

WeWork has said it is running low on cash and its lawyers have said they are in negotiations with lenders to finance its continuing restructuring efforts.

Neumann said in his February letter to WeWork that the financial crunch it faces in bankruptcy was due to management’s lack of ability to seek options for financial support. Neumann also said that he wasn’t able to obtain the information he needed to submit a bid, and that he had approached the company as early as December.

WeWork has told parties interested in bidding for the business that it plans to hand control over to its creditors after it restructures itself into a more profitable business, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier.

The airline said the flight experienced an issue with an engine as it approached Perth

SYDNEY—Qantas QAN -0.56%decrease; red down pointing triangle engineers will inspect an Airbus AIR 0.13%increase; green up pointing triangle A330 after pilots shut down one of its engines on a flight between Melbourne and Perth on Monday night.

Local media reported passengers saying there was a loud bang on Qantas Flight 781. The airline, Australia’s largest, said the aircraft landed safely and without further incident in Perth.

According to Qantas, the flight experienced an issue with an engine as it approached Perth. The pilots then followed procedures, manually shut down the engine and requested a priority landing.

Emergency services met the aircraft on arrival, but the aircraft taxied to the gate under its own power and passengers disembarked normally.

“We know this would have been unsettling for customers on board and we thank them for their cooperation and understanding,” Qantas said in a statement.

The aircraft is designed to safely operate with just one engine, Qantas said.

Several midair mishaps have spooked passengers recently, including a Jan. 5 blowout on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX. Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun recently said he would step down.