Traffic drops at Air France as slump hits October 7, 2009 AIR FRANCE-KLM, Europe’s biggest airline, yesterday said its traffic for September fell 3.7 per cent year-on-year, and reported continued pressure on revenues. But the Franco-Dutch carrier said it had boosted its load factor, a measure of how full its planes are. The airline carried 6.2m passengers in September, down 5.3 per cent on 2008, while [...]
Aer Lingus cuts jobs and pay in a bid to save 97m a year October 7, 2009 AER LINGUS, the Irish airline, is axing around 800 jobs as it seeks to save €97m (£90m) a year by 2011. The shamrock-crested carrier, which has fended off two hostile bids from Irish rival Ryanair – one of the most cost-efficient players in the industry – said it could not survive “in a situation where [...]
BAs’ unions threaten strike action if staff are forced to leave the airline October 7, 2009 BRITISH AIRWAYS’ (BA) staff unions were last night locked in emergency talks, following the carrier’s decision to cut 1,700 cabin crew staff. The ubiquitous Unite union claims BA made the move without reaching an agreement, and us now threatening strikes over the Christmas period. Earlier this week, BA said 1,000 of its cabin staff had [...]
Q & A : WHERE HAVE THE STRIKE THREATS COME FROM? October 7, 2009 Q. WHAT ARE THE UNIONS OPPOSING?A. On Tuesday, British Airways announced it was cutting 1,700 jobs and was introducing a two-year pay freeze for cabin crew as it looks to cut costs in the downturn. It also said it would recruit new staff on different terms and conditions to current employees. Unite has denounced the [...]
Pulling MACHINE October 6, 2009 AS I write this, I am sitting watching the sunset across the Gulf of St Tropez, about to drive back to Blighty towing a photographer friend’s two-tonne boat. My friend Kos, you see, is a yacht photographer who uses a Range Rover Sport to tow her boats to sailing regattas around Europe. She is looking [...]
Sweeten your home the Candy way October 6, 2009 FROM time to time we all sit and wonder about the kind of home we’d have if money were no object. Imagine the bedroom. Vast flatscreen telly? De rigueur. Cavernous walk-in wardrobe? Yes please, ideally with outfits rotated electronically. En suite with jacuzzi? Why not. Supercar hoisted up and parked at the end of the [...]
Political polling produces instant public response October 6, 2009 THE big news here in Manchester is “daily polling”. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but never before have we seen the effect of the sound and fury at the party conferences producing, almost instantly, accurately recorded public response. The chart shows how Gordon Brown’s speech led to a very slight uplift, which disappeared the next [...]
Pension funds slam calls for annual voting October 6, 2009 BRITISH pension schemes with more than £50bn in assets have sharply criticised a call by other major institutional investors for annual re-election of all directors at listed UK companies. BT Pension scheme fund manager Hermes, and the universities pension fund USS – which manages £21.7bn in assets – said a move to put the entire [...]
Chloride trading at full power October 6, 2009 Power protection company Chloride Group said yesterday that trading in the first-half was in line with its expectations and its order book at the end of September was up four per cent. The company, which makes the products which protect against power shortages at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and the Emirates stadium of Arsenal, said it [...]
Mobile contracts to hit 4.6bn October 6, 2009 Mobile subscriptions will rise to 4.6bn by the end of this year, boosted by a continuing mobile phone boom in emerging economies, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said yesterday. That represents about two mobile subscriptions for every three people in the world, although in developed economies many people have more than one subscription.