Virgin airline bucks gloom, boosts profit August 27, 2008 More business passengers helped boost full-year profits by 21 per cent to £34.8m at Virgin Atlantic despite record fuel prices, the airline revealed yesterday. The long-haul carrier, 51 per cent owned by Sir Richard Branson, said its business passenger numbers rose 22 per cent during the year, as Virgin took market share from British Airways [...]
Party time for Beijing stars August 26, 2008 Celebrations for Great Britain’s most successful Olympic Games for 100 years are set to continue into today as the nation’s new sporting heroes toast their overwhelming success in Beijing. The 300-strong squad were met by crowds of flag-waving fans yesterday as they touched down at Heathrow Airport on a British Airways plane painted with a [...]
High Altitude Health August 12, 2008 Zoe Strimpel tells you how to keep sharp when you’re flying At this time of year, people are flying more than ever. If you are lucky, that’s because you are getting away on a well-earned holiday. If you are still taking business trips right now, well, you probably need to make sure you are arriving [...]
Passengers desert BA for cheap rivals August 7, 2008 British Airways carried 94,000 fewer passengers in July than in the same month last year. The airline blamed high oil prices, subsequent ticket price increases, and the worsening economic environment. The drop, during what is traditionally peak-season, came from non-premium ticket sales. Passenger load factor – the measurement of how full flights are – dropped [...]
BA and Iberia set to merge in £4bn deal July 30, 2008 BA’s Willie Walsh seeks to put the chaotic move to Heathrow’s Terminal 5 behind him British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia have started merger talks in a bid to create Europe’s third-largest airline, they announced yesterday. The two carriers, currently fourth and sixth in Europe by value, are working on a friendly all-share deal with [...]
How Obama is having an impact on our view of US brands July 28, 2008 There are still those who would separate business and politics. But they are intimately connected. In a study about a year ago using data from YouGov’s BrandIndex and our tracking of attitudes to America, we examined whether the two were correlated. We found that there was indeed a clear link: as opinions of the US [...]
BA warns it will cut flights as prices rise July 16, 2008 British Airways told investors yesterday it would raise prices, cut flights and would do well to break even in 2008. Speaking at the annual shareholders meeting in London, chairman Martin Broughton said: “It will be a considerable achievement for BA to break even this year.” He added: “With oil at $85 a barrel – a [...]
Public Sector must try harder to please consumer July 15, 2008 Public services have been having a bad time recently, with data disks going missing, concerns about MRSA in hospitals and intense dissatisfaction with the move to fortnightly bin collections by many local authorities. It’s hardly surprising then that only one in five people in the UK believe public services are generally well run. Most of [...]
BA snaps up French carrier for £54m July 3, 2008 British Airways struck a deal to buy French business-class rival L’Avion for £54m yesterday to boost its new OpenSkies subsidiary, which flies between continental Europe and America. BA will add L’Avion, which began flying between Paris and London last January, to its OpenSkies unit, which began operations last month. The flag carrier’s OpenSkies service is [...]
Growth fears as oil surges to fresh peak July 1, 2008 Motorists and business to be hit as oil hits a new record of $143 a barrel in New York Crude oil prices rose to a record high of over $143 per barrel yesterday due to tensions in the Middle East, stoking fears that the global economy is being throttled by a double whammy of sky [...]