Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Monday, October 18th.

And this is your FT News Briefing.

High energy prices are looming over the airline industry's recovery.

And in today's show, we're doing something a little different and a little fun.

We've got a question from one of our listeners.

Is economic growth linked to population growth and if so, why?

So we found just the right FT correspondent to answer it.

Adam, you've touched upon one of the main economic dilemmas of our time.

So this is a million dollar question.

I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day.

Higher energy costs have rippled through global markets and they're hitting airlines, too.

The FT's Acting Transport Correspondent, Philip Georgiados says

higher fuel costs could trip up airlines as they recover from the pandemic.

Airlines haven't really had any revenue. They've not been able to control that.

They've had very few passengers, travel restrictions and so on.

So they really had a laser focus on costs and try to get them down as much as possible.

Unfortunately, laying off a lot of staff, restructuring their businesses,

looking at their fleets.

But these fuel prices are costs that they really can't control.

So can airlines absorb the cost?

How much will this hurt?

I think if you're an investor in an airline, you're pretty sanguine.

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