Air Berlin chief quits after a quarterly loss and plans for drastic network cuts August 19, 2011 AIR Berlin founder and chief executive Joachim Hunold quit yesterday after the low-cost carrier posted a quarterly loss and cut its network in the quest for its first annual profit since 2007. If the board accepts Hunold’s suggestion, Hartmut Mehdorn, the former head of state-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn, would take over as interim chief [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD April 10, 2011 COMPANY NEWS • Today, Alcoa reports its first quarter earnings. This will give traders indications to what extent higher commodity prices are feeding through into profits. Alcoa is the world’s largest miner of bauxite and refiner of alumina. • Also today, beleaguered BP will host an EGM, while on Thursday it will have to face [...]
Behind the scenes at the house of KRUG December 19, 2010 KRUG, the grand old Champagne house, has been feeling a little unloved of late. Revered across the world as a wine that’s emblematic and long-lasting, it is perhaps perceived as a Champagne to be bought, sold and stored, rather than drunk in celebration. This was not always so, and Krug wants to have fun again. [...]
The airline boss with a hit list of 12 bid targets in his desk drawer September 13, 2010 It is clear that British Airways (BA) chief executive Willie Walsh always likes to keep his foot hard on the pedal. The Dublin-born airline boss is in the middle of a bitter 18-month dispute with his cabin crew, and only a few weeks ago received US and European regulatory clearance to pursue a transatlantic tie-up [...]
BA boss eyes fresh round of merger deals September 5, 2010 BRITISH AIRWAYS chief executive Willie Walsh has drawn up a hit list of a dozen companies he wants to buy after he has sealed his merger with Iberia and American Airlines in a bid to become the biggest airline group in the world. Walsh said: “The mergers with Iberia and American were never meant to [...]
Airbus signs $11bn A380 deal June 8, 2010 AIRBUS celebrated yesterday after receiving a record breaking order from Emirates Airline for 32 A380 planes worth $11.5bn (£8bn). The deal, the largest of its kind yet, was signed in Berlin by the airline’s chief executive and chairman Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum and Airbus president and chief executive Tom Enders. The signing was witnessed [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 27, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES COMMODITIES SURGE AFTER WARNING ON HURRICANE SEASON Oil and natural gas prices surged on Thursday as the US government said this year’s hurricane season could rank among the most active to date, comparable to years that brought such devastating storms as 2005’s Katrina and Rita. The outlook raises the possibility of damage to [...]
Test flights to protest the European ban April 18, 2010 A RAFT of European commercial airliners launched test flights this weekend, despite flight bans, in a bid to protest against decisions to ground flights in the UK and most of Northern Europe as the Icelandic volcano continued to erupt. British Airways (BA), Air France, KLM and Lufthansa each flew a collection of test flights throughout [...]
Berlin is still emerging from the shadows of the past November 8, 2009 WHEN you walk across the joint expanse of Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz in central Berlin, you’re surrounded by futuristic architecture, vast advertising hoardings, neon-lit brand names and thundering traffic. It makes it easy to forget you’re crossing what was once known here as the “Death Strip”. A cobbled line marking the old route of [...]
When weather is a matter of life and death June 10, 2009 TURBULENCEBy Giles FodenFABER & FABER, £16.99 GILES FODEN’S The Last King of Scotland was a masterful book and became a masterful film because of its compelling combination of historical fact, fiction and painstakingly realised detail in an unusual context. It is reason enough for Turbulence, his latest piece of historical fiction, to be read with [...]