A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
New route beats expectations
Aer Lingus is carrying more passengers than expected on its new route from Belfast to Heathrow. The company launched the route on January 14th after ending its Shannon-Heathrow service last year. Yesterday it said that the load factors, that is the proportion of passengers carried relative to the number of available seats, was "slightly ahead of expectations".
The airline carried 706,000 passengers in January, a 10.8 per cent increase on the same month last year. But the company said yesterday that its overall load factor was down at 64 per cent in January per cent from 69 per cent in the same in 2007.
Browne joins Claret board
Former Anglo Irish Bank director Tom Browne has joined the board of Claret Capital, the investment firm that owns start-up executive jet business JetBird and maratime mobile phone business Blue Ocean Wireless. He will be a non-executive director of Claret, which is run by financier Dómhnal Slattery.
McCreevy warns banks
Banks must increase disclosure and sharpen risk management to avoid a "regulatory backlash" in response to credit market turmoil and Société Générale's trading loss, according to the Republic's EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy.
Mr McCreevy, Europe's internal market commissioner, said the European Commission may consider more sweeping changes to bank capital rules if lenders and ratings agencies do not overhaul practices on their own. He said financial companies also faced greater scrutiny of internal controls after SocGen missed warning signs before the bank's €4.9 billion trading loss.
EasyJet keeps up profits rise
EasyJet, the UK's leading low-cost airline, has maintained its forecast for a 20 per cent increase in underlying pre-tax profits in its financial year to the end of September, in stark contrast to the Ryanair profit warning issued this week.
Ryanair had warned that higher oil prices, weakening consumer sentiment and the strong risk of recession could lead to a sharp decline in its profits in the year to March 2009 - possibly by as much as 50 per cent. - (Financial Times service)
ComReg calls for charge cuts
Irish mobile operators should cut the costs of data services including text messages for customers who travel abroad according to communications regulator ComReg. The regulator has also "questioned the validity" of operators billing for roaming telephone calls on a per minute rather than a per second basis. Yesterday ComReg published a report which showed all Irish mobile operators complied with the EU Roaming Regulation which came into power last August and required them to cut charges for calls made when travelling in Europe.
Court restricts directors
The High Court has made orders restricting two directors of a wound-up clothing transport company from involvement with any company unless it meets the requirements of the Companies Act. Mr Justice John Edwards said he was making the orders under Section 150 of the Companies Act against Gerard McCusker and Emer McCusker, directors of Euro Express Forwarding Ltd (in voluntary liquidation), because of "significant evidence of lack of commercial probity and want of proper standards" in relation to the affairs of the company which had traded while insolvent. EEF had specialised in the shipping and onward distribution of garments to and from the UK for customers in the clothing industry and ceased trading in March 2006.
