Why Barcelona settled for Qatar Airways as shirt sponsor and will always struggle to match Manchester United’s commercial clout August 2, 2016 Despite being one of the largest football clubs on the planet, Barcelona were compelled to ignore calls from within their own fan base to cut ties with Gulf state Qatar, which included a petition signed by over 60,000 people, and sign a one-year extension to their Qatar Airways shirt sponsorship deal earlier this month after struggling to [...]
Qatar Airways just bumped up its stake in British Airways and Aer Lingus owner IAG August 1, 2016 Qatar Airways said this morning it had bumped its stake in the owner of British Airways up to 20 per cent. The company, which announced last month it had bought a 15.67 per cent stake in the airline, said it now owns 20.01 per cent of International Airlines Group (IAG), which also owns Aer Lingus [...]
Yep, British Airways owner IAG has taken a €148m hit from the weaker pound July 29, 2016 What with terrorism, the falling pound and an attempted coup in Turkey, the past six months have not been a great time to be an airline. The figures International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns British Airways and Aer Lingus (after much wrangling), reported operating profit before exceptional items of €710m (£597m) in the six months to [...]
Institute of Directors names Stephen Martin as new director general July 28, 2016 Top lobby group The Institute of Directors (IoD) will today announce who will be taking over as its new director general – a role dubbed “the bosses’ boss”. Stephen Martin, a long-standing IoD member with a background in industry, has secured the high-profile position as chief of the 113-year old organisation after an eight-month long [...]
Sloth-spotting in the heart of the Costa Rican rainforest is becoming a popular pastime with Brits July 25, 2016 The internet is responsible for reviving many things that should be extinct: men’s rights activism, the music career of Rick Astley and, less unpleasantly, everybody’s favourite endangered species, the sloth. Despite the fact they can barely drag themselves across a road, these smiley slow-coaches have somehow managed to take over the world wide web. Time [...]
Week ahead: Oil majors and GDP numbers set to steer markets July 25, 2016 Markets in the UK and Europe seem to be running out of momentum recently but a influx of earning reports this week may go some way to liven things up. The blue-chip FTSE 100 was up 0.5 per cent at 6,730.48 points at its close on Friday, its fifth straight week of gains. The latest [...]
These are the most complained about airlines July 22, 2016 The worst offending airlines and airports of the year have been revealed, and you guessed it, easyJet and Ryanair have topped the charts. The internal data from EUclaim showed the most complained about British airlines, revealing the number of people seeking compensation against Ryanair has more than doubled in the last year. During the period [...]
Thousands of British Airways cabin crew to vote on industrial action after “performance” scheme is introduced, according to Unite July 18, 2016 Thousands of British Airways staff are to vote on whether to take industrial action after a "performance" scheme was introduced, according to the UK's biggest union. Unite said that around 8,800 cabin crew will vote on whether to take strike action over what it calls a new "bureaucratic" performance scheme that has led to fears [...]
Airline and travel shares fall after Nice attack July 15, 2016 Airlines and travel stocks were among the FTSE 100's biggest fallers this morning, after a suspected terror attack in Nice which killed 84 people. EasyJet was the index's worst-performing stock in early trading, falling 2.3 per cent to 1,144p, while International Airlines Group, the parent company of British Airways, followed, falling 1.5 per cent to 419.3p. Travel stocks were also [...]
At the close: Sterling surge holds down the FTSE 100 July 12, 2016 The FTSE 100 closed flat this evening after ending yesterday's session at an 11-month high. The blue-chip index closed at 6,680.69 points, down just two points and flat in percentage terms. The end to yesterday's rally was put down to sterling being on course for its best performance against the yen in over three years after Theresa May [...]