Continental to scrap free in-flight meals March 15, 2010 CONTINENTAL Airlines yesterday unveiled plans to save around $35m (£23.3m) a year by axing its free in-flight meal service on shorter economy flights in the US. Continental was the last among its major competitors to hang on to the free meal concept in economy class, after the pressures of the economic downturn forced many to [...]
Kauto on top but don’t rule out Denman March 14, 2010 Paul Nicholls started training in 1991 after injury brought to an end a career in the saddle that saw him ride back-to-back Hennessy Gold Cups on Playschool in 1986 and Broadheath in 1987. He only managed to fill eight of the 28 boxes in his first season at Manor Farm Stables in Somerset, but it’s [...]
Aer Lingus losses shoot up as cuts loom March 9, 2010 AER lingus has announced that its operating losses quadrupled to €81m (£73.5m) last year. The Irish carrier’s revenue plummeted 11 per cent to €1.2bn. It has fended off two hostile bids by low-cost rival Ryanair but is locked in a dispute with cabin staff over its cost-cutting programme. The company’s board will meet to adjust [...]
Aer Lingus delays results after cabin crew reject cuts March 8, 2010 IRISH airline Aer Lingus will not publish its 2009 earnings today as planned so it can adjust provisions for cost-cutting measures that cabin crew rejected last week. The Irish flag carrier said it would not publish full results until an unspecified date. It will issue a brief trading statement today instead. Aer Lingus, which has [...]
EasyJet sees its passenger numbers rise March 4, 2010 THE number of passengers carried by budget airline easyJet in February was 12.3 per cent higher than a year earlier, though the load factor was lower. EasyJet carried 3.39m passengers in February 2009, compared with 3.02m who used the airline in February 2008, according to figures released by the airine yesterday. However the load factor [...]
Stelios uses EasyJet shares as collateral to secure a £5m loan February 17, 2010 EasyJet owner Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has raised £5m by using shares as collateral for a loan. An unnamed lender accepted 1.27m shares as collateral in a deal arranged by UBS. The arrangement mirrors a deal in September, when Stelios raised £7.5m by using 2m shares as collateral on a loan through Credit Suisse. EasyGroup has [...]
HEDGE FUND FASHION GURU HAS A SALES BOOM February 11, 2010 WE ALWAYS knew women were good at multi-tasking, but Britt Lintner really does take the concept to a new extreme. Regular readers may remember Lintner, who heads up her own flourishing womenswear label while managing to hold down a tough job in hedge fund sales at GLG Partners. And now I hear that not only [...]
Moore all set to land hat-trick with Harry February 11, 2010 HAVING sent out both Heathcote (2007) and Wingman (2008) to land the Totesport Trophy, it was snow and ice that prevented Gary Moore from attempting to land the hat-trick last year. However, his HARRY TRICKER looks the ideal type at around 7/1 for tomorrow’s prestigious £150,000 handicap hurdle. Our selection looked nothing special when campaigned [...]
A new mood of fear is pulling down markets February 7, 2010 THE TERM double-dip is over-used; our viewers always get upset with us if we refer to it too often. But where is this cycle going? It’s certainly not looking good. February seemed to start off well with decent earnings reports and some stronger data from the US, but at the end of last week sovereign [...]
Hype of Apple’s iPad is better than the reality February 2, 2010 The launch of the Apple iPad at the end of last week led to a strong increase in the buzz score for the general Apple brand as measured by BrandIndex. That might have been expected, but graph one shows a more mixed story: at the start of 2010, with excited consumer chatter about the imminent [...]