Imperial Commander looks the only danger to Kauto and Denman January 14, 2010 ONLY 27 horses stood their ground on Wednesday for the Cheltenham Gold Cup which was no real surprise when you consider that two of those names were Kauto Star and Denman. The eagerly awaited re-match (the score currently stands at 1-1) on 19 March is already being billed as one of the best races of [...]
No frillers win fight of skies January 7, 2010 RYANAIR blew away the competition over Christmas, flying nearly five million passengers in December – 12 per cent more than last year. And total passengers for 2009 reached the dizzy heights of 65m, jetting past the 58m recorded the previous year. The budget airline’s biggest rival EasyJet notched up a 9.3 per cent year-on-year rise [...]
BA’s image recovers from threat of strike action January 5, 2010 JOHN Lewis yesterday announced strong Christmas sales – and certainly from the BrandIndex satisfaction scores, it seems that Waitrose customers were satisfied with their Christmas shopping. Graph One shows the scores of six leading supermarkets for the month of December. A PR DISASTER British Airways, meanwhile, had a disastrous December on the PR front. Strikes [...]
OFT attacks Ryanair over fee loopholes January 4, 2010 BUDGET airline Ryanair has been branded “puerile and childish” for using a legal loophole to hit online customers with an extra credit card charge. Office of Fair Trading (OFT) chief executive John Fingleton yesterday attacked the company for hitting customers with a £5 booking fee for using all but one credit card. The fee has [...]
Ryanair branded “puerile and childish” over credit card charges January 4, 2010 BUDGET airline Ryanair has been branded “puerile and childish” for using a legal loophole to hit online customers with an extra credit card charge. Office of Fair Trading chief executive John Fingleton attacked the company for the £5 fee charged on all but one credit card. The fee has been added to payments with Electron [...]
Ryanair defies the downturn while BA’s passengers slump December 3, 2009 BRITISH Airways (BA) said yesterday the number of passengers flying with the airline had fallen yet again last month, as holiday-goers and business travellers continue to opt for budget travel. The number of passengers carried fell 3.4 per cent to 2.3m, the airline said, while passenger capacity fell 6.2 per cent through the reduction in [...]
Aer Lingus to cut more jobs December 2, 2009 AER LINGUS’ new boss stamped his mark on the ailing airline yesterday, announcing another round of job cuts after talks with unions to reduce the airline’s wage bill collapsed. Ex-package holidays executive Christoph Mueller, who took up the post at Aer Lingus on 1 September, is trying to overhaul a carrier which has resisted two [...]
Ryanair expands its destinations November 25, 2009 Ryanair said yesterday it will buy two new aircraft, open 13 new routes, bringing its total to 34, and deliver 2m passengers per annum at Trapani, Sicily. The move will sustain 2,000 local jobs, Ryanair said. Between two and three flights will go to Billund, Bratislava, Cagliari, Eindhoven, Genoa, Gothenburg, Ibiza and Karlsruhe, among others.
Supermarkets and food staples have a family feel November 24, 2009 BrandIndex asks general questions about brands, but sometimes it’s useful to look at more specific qualities. YouGov recently conducted research on the associations between brands and family values. The recent Family Brands report, conducted for advertising agency Isobel, suggests that association with family values is a useful differential by which we can measure different types [...]
Tax hits UK airports November 22, 2009 AIRLINEShave cancelled more routes out of London than any other city in Europe as a direct result of the British government’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax, according to figures released by insurers. APD will rise from £10 to £11 in November and industry insiders are worried it could add to the 76 routes already cancelled [...]