AER LINGUS STARTS BELFAST BASE OPERATIONS - Aer Lingus started business out of Belfast International Airport - the new name for Aldergrove - this morning with the first flight to Amsterdam taking off. Each way fares were advertised at £2 a seat, excluding taxes. In addition to Amsterdam, Aer Lingus is competing with Easyjet on routes to Geneva and Barcelona. It will offer other European destinations in the New Year. The controversial Belfast Heathrow service starts in the middle of January with tickets advertised at £1.
Enda Corneille, Commercial Director at Aer Lingus, says that the load factors - a measure of how many seats on being filled on flights - are good for the Belfast routes. He says that the airline had many challenges to overcome regarding the Belfast service and today 'represents a new era in flying for Aer Lingus and for Northern Ireland.' Mr Corneille says that Aer Lingus is not afraid of competition and is ready to take on Easyjet on the three European routes from Belfast.
He says that Belfast is now a template for future Aer Lingus bases in Europe. He says the airline's focus at the moment is to consolidate its position at Belfast and to get the base profitable, but he adds that the company will keep an eye on opportunities further afield.
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BUILDERS CONTINUE TO SEE SLOWDOWN - November marked the six month in a row of decline in the construction industry as measured by new orders for building works. The monthly Ulster Bank Purchasing Managers Index suggests home building is in rapid deceleration with contractors finishing existing schemes but not taking on new work. There was also a fall, albeit less marked, in new work being undertaken on commercial building projects. On the plus side, the third measure in the index - civil engineering work of the type underpinned in the National Development Plan - appears to be booming.
Chief economist with Ulster Bank Pat McArdle says that November continued to be a difficult month for builders. He says the overall decline was mainly due to the housing sector, which was very weak indeed. The economist also says that commercial activity fell back into the red last month, but the sector does not cause him much concern as other evidence shows continued strength there.
*** MORNING BRIEFS - British bank Lloyds TSB said its 2007 underlying profit was on track to be in line with analysts' expectations and it would take a 'relatively limited' hit of £200m sterling from its exposure to credit market problems
*** Swiss bank UBS today it announced $10 billion in fresh sub-prime writedowns. UBS, which has been severely battered by the US sub-prime mortgage meltdown, also said it expected to make a fourth-quarter loss, reversing previous guidance, and said it may also register a loss for 2007 as a whole.
*** The former media tycoon Conrad Black is due in court in the US later today for sentencing, five months after he was convicted of fraud and obstructing justice in relation to stealing $3.5m from shareholders of the newspaper publisher Hollinger International. Legal experts say he can expect a jail term of between five and 15 years.
*** The euro is worth $1.4650 and 72 pence sterling on the currency markets this morning.
