Delta finds Shannon fertile ground; Eason plans to turn over new leaf; a lot of bets were off for Celtic; Ryanair lets fly over refund website
Delta plans more flights to US from Shannon
AER LINGUS may have cancelled its transatlantic services from Shannon airport for the first three months of the year, but US rival Delta continues to fly from there to JFK in New York and plans to increase this to a daily service for its summer schedule.
“We saw a return of demand last year so we’ve reinstated it [to a daily service],” Siobhán Scanlon, Delta’s sales manager in Ireland told me this week.
Delta has flown from Shannon since 1987 and Scanlon said it was “committed to the route”.
Delta also flies from Dublin to JFK and to Atlanta.
Scanlon said 2010 “exceeded expectations” for Delta’s Irish routes. The airline carried 318,000 passengers, achieving a load factor of 90 per cent.
“We had a high volume of leisure traffic but we’ve also seen a return of corporate traffic,” she said.
She would not reveal any financials but said Delta’s Irish revenues showed a “marked increased” last year on 2009.
Delta offers about 150 onward connections from JFK and Atlanta to Irish passengers. Scanlon said Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco are the most popular onward destinations.
Delta moved into Terminal 2 at Dublin airport on January 11th and Scanlon praised the multi- million euro facility. “Its very impressive . . . and nicer than T1, which had constraints in size and space.”
What does she expect from 2011? “All I can say is that advance bookings are positive.”
Eason hopes revamp will lure readers
THESE ARE tough times for book retailers. Snow kept shoppers away during the Christmas period while the budget knocked consumer confidence for six. Then there’s the growth of e-books and online retailers.
Figures from Nielsen show Irish book sales fell by about 10 per cent last year to €135 million.
On Tuesday, Waterstone’s said it was shuttering two shops in Dublin. Rent and service charges at its Jervis Street store cost just over €500,000 a year.
Eason’s managing director Conor Whelan said its turnover for the year to the end of January 2011 will show a double-digit rise but that is due to new shops, including outlets at Dublin and Cork airports.
“Like for like we’d be showing a small single-digit decline,” he told me this week.
He described the first two weeks of December as “shocking” as snow kept customers away.
But Eason is planning a major overhaul of its strategy. New categories will be introduced.
It has appointed a new advertising agency – Irish International – and is planning a major branding campaign. A loyalty card is likely and its digital strategy is to get a makeover.
“We’re going to do a complete revamp and relaunch of our online catalogue and we’ll probably develop some new specialist websites,” Whelan said.
“We’ll probably develop a digital piece in-store, too, where people can download books or browse the catalogue.
“We will also look at new stores, including franchises and we’ll have new store designs.
“We have to make the shopping experience more attractive and make it more of a destination store for customers.”
Going was tough for most Celtic outlets
DOCUMENTS CIRCULATED to those interested in buying parts of Celtic Bookmakers give an insight into the difficulties that Ivan Yates faced in the recession.
Turnover at its Kanturk outlet in north Cork – one of the biggest left in the Celtic stable – was down almost 17 per cent last year at €3 million.
Remarkably, Kanturk managed to increase its gross profit last year in spite of the decline in betting. This rose by 28 per cent to from €324,831.
Winner all right.
In Clonsilla in west Dublin, turnover declined by 5 per cent to €2.4 million while its gross profit was down 23 per cent at €226,717.
In Cashel, Co Tipperary, turnover was 34 per cent lower at €2.5 million while its gross profit declined to €240,782 from €356,868. The company managed to trim its annual rent there for last year by 24 per cent to €32,265.
The best rent deal secured by Yates appears to have been in Castlebar, Co Mayo, where the landlord agreed to a cut from €40,000 to €24,000 for 2010.
Turnover in Castlebar was 15 per cent lower last year at €2.5 million, while the gross profit fell by €50,000.
It wasn’t all bad news for Celtic. A couple of shops actually managed to grow their business.
For example, the bookmakers in Blackrock, Dublin, increased its turnover marginally to €3.2million while its gross profit was up a healthy 16 per cent to €363,527.
In Listowel, Co Kerry, turnover rose to just under €2.8 million from €2.5 million in 2009.
Its gross profit increased to €169,947 from €126,776.
But both were down on 2008 when Blackrock had turnover of €3.6 million and Listowel’s was just shy of €3 million.
The rent on Blackrock is a hefty €80,000 while Listowel cost €48,900 a year.
Both are due rent reviews in the next 24 months.
Kanturk, Clonsilla and Blackrock are reported to be among the shops that Boylesports wants to buy from the receiver.
Here’s hoping Boylesports finds the going good.
Bite in air as letters fly over tax refunds
THERE’S NOTHING like a good legal scrap involving Ryanair to give a bite to the spring air.
Just weeks after its launch, Airtaxrefund.com has managed to get itself on Ryanair’s legal radar.
The new company offers to handle refund claims from passengers who book flights with airlines but don’t travel.
Passengers should be entitled to the repayment of government taxes but most airlines levy a fee for the refunds, which makes it unattractive for consumers to chase down what they are owed.
So the airlines usually pocket the taxes for themselves. For a small fee, Airtaxrefund.com will chase down this money.
On January 19th, co-founder Brian Whelan, who also holds the PR account for the Commission for Aviation Regulation here, received a legal missive from Juliusz Komorek, Ryanair’s director of legal affairs.
Komorek took issue with claims made about Ryanair’s fares, its “no-show ratio” and its terms and conditions. He said references to “stealing” and “bandits” in relations to Ryanair were “grossly offensive and defamatory”.
“It is clear that both your press release and . . . radio advert are factually inaccurate, false and defamatory towards Ryanair,” Komorek added.
“Unless we receive confirmation by return that these have been corrected to accurately reflect Ryanair’s position, then our lawyers will be instructed to initiate legal proceedings.”
Whelan was given until January 26th to comply. In a return letter, Whelan batted away Ryanair’s claims.
“Rather than sending threatening letters, Ryanair might recognise in Airtaxrefund.com a little of its own DNA,” he said.
Go Brian.
“As Ryanair did in the 1980s, we have developed a radical approach to the aviation industry, which can be both highly commercial and respectful of passengers’ rights.
“We would be happy to discuss it with you, but only under a less hostile atmosphere than that reflected in your letter.”
Komorek has yet to respond but it should be interesting.
LITTLE THINGS
THE DANISH government might be chipping in to our EU-IMF bailout but the country’s biggest pension fund, ATP, is giving us a wide berth.
“We didn’t participate” in last week’s inaugural sale of the bonds by the European Financial Stability Facility, Henrik Gade Jepsen, the fund’s chief investment officer, said this week.
The EFSF sold €5 billion of AAA- rated five-year notes last week to help pay for Ireland’s emergency loan.
“We really want the safest bonds in our portfolio. It’s very important for us that our government bonds are really safe,” Jepsen added. Ouch.
***
An amusing note this week from analysts at Panmure Gordon about Michael Chadwick’s decision to hand over the reins of Grafton Group.
“An interesting transaction at the end of the ‘transfer window’ was the move of Gavin Slark, who had been knocking them in at BSS, to Grafton,” Panmure said. “He will be . . . cup-tied until April but will then lead the attack against the top teams of general merchants – Travis Perkins and Wolseley.
“Having helped BSS move up from the Championship to the Premier Division, we see this as a good move for Grafton.”
