AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL CHARGES TO BE CUT BY 40% - The Commission for Aviation Regulation is reducing air traffic control charges by 40% between January 2012 and December 2015. In the scheme of things, this charge is a small element of what airlines pay to use airports, but the reduction has been welcomed by Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Transport Minister Leo Varadkar. The charges are for air traffic control services used by planes landing and taking off from Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports. They are separate from the DAA's airport charges.
The Commissioner for Aviation Regulation, Cathal Guiomard, says the charges will be reduced by about a quarter next year and will then decrease by 6% in the following years to 2015. He says that airlines pay about €20m a year under these charges. Mr Guiomard says the reductions are coming in because of lower levels of investment planned by the Irish Aviation Authority and as the company is required to lower its operation costs to reflect its lower levels of activity. He says there is no plan to change the ceiling for airport charges - this was set in 2009 to last for five years. However, he points out that the charges have only a ceiling limit and the Dublin Airport Authority is free to set charges below that ceiling.
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MORNING BRIEFS - The UK's Competition Commission has provisionally cleared the acquisition of Headland Foods frozen ready meals business by Kerry Foods.
*** Deutsche Bank's third-quarter pretax profit beat analyst expectations as traditional banking and business with retail clients helped offset a slump in investment banking. Its third-quarter pretax profit came to €0.9 billion compared to a loss in the same part of last year of €1.05 billion. Pre-tax profit from the corporate and investment bank fell to €329m, compared with €1.3 billion last year and reflecting a trend among investment bank peers. Earlier this month weaker market activity forced Germany's flagship lender to drop ambitious full-year targets and announce 500 job cuts.
*** A speech by the outgoing European Central Bank president Jean Claude Trichet was interrupted by protesters last night at Berlin's Humboldt University. In his speech, called "Tomorrow and the day after Tomorrow: A Vision for Europe" Mr Trichet called for euro zone authorities to have greater powers over the economic policies of the bloc's errant members, setting out a vision for a closer-knit currency area. He suggested euro zone states should examine all aspects of each others' economic policies. This would go beyond fiscal policy surveillance.
*** The euro is holding near a six-week high this morning, supported by market expectations that European leaders will come up with broad measures to contain the region's debt crisis at tomorrow's summit. It is trading at $1.3890 cents and 86.9 pence sterling.
