Ryanair's Michael O'Leary has a new rival. She is Barbara Cassani, the British Airway's executive who will head the new low-frills airline being established by the British carrier. "I'm tired of skulking around car parks," she was quoted as saying this week, after months of cloak and dagger talks in BA's "Operation Bluesky".

Sheila O'Flanagan is a fixed-income specialist at NCB stockbrokers.