The battle between Gatwick and Heathrow over where London’s next runway will be built has been fierce and rather heated.
An advertising campaign by Gatwick over the summer about the noise from a new Heathrow runway was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority as being misleading.
The stakes are high, with a report last summer by Sir Howard Davies for the Airports Commission backing Heathrow, Gatwick maintaining the report is flawed and the government due to make a decision by the end of the year. But is the battle really so heated that executives from the two airports have to be kept apart at an industry event?
A two-day conference organised by the Airport Operators Association at a hotel in central London will see Stewart Wingate, Gatwick’s chief executive, taking to the podium on Monday to talk about “airports policy in the years ahead”, while his Heathrow counterpart, John Holland-Kaye, will tackle the very same subject a day later. Surely a discussion (or argument) between the two would have been worth hearing? Maybe there was a diary clash.
Also on the programme, and sadly topical, is a discussion on how flying can be made safer after recent tragedies, as well as presentations from the government, the Labour party, and Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group.
Stores’ mood darkens over Black Friday
Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the runup to Christmas itself … the number of “special” occasions for retailers to flog their wares seems endless at this time of year. But could it be counterproductive? A number of shopkeepers are already wary of Black Friday – coming up this week – on the basis that it may merely bring forward sales that would have happened anyway.
There is also the chaos the event seems to cause, with Tesco for one deciding to open at 5am rather than midnight this year in an effort to minimise damage. Asda has said it will scale down its participation after fights in its stores last year.
And with many items purely impulse buys because of the deals on offer, the proportion of goods returned for a refund is said to be higher than normal – another problem retailers could do without.
Still, last week’s UK retail sales figures for October showed a 0.6% fall on the previous month, with shoppers keeping their cash in their pockets as they waited for bargains. So this year Black Friday is forecast to see £2bn worth of sales, up 20% on the 2014 figure. Watch out for more videos of people fighting over cut-price HD TVs.
Rolls-Royce faces painful overhaul
Warren East’s strategic review of Rolls-Royce, which will be unveiled on Tuesday, was always going to be the focus of attention.
The chief executive of the engine maker is four months into the job, and he has already issued two profit warnings – the latest just over a week ago, blamed on a slowdown in Asia hitting demand for servicing. In all, Rolls has warned on profits four times in just over a year. A dividend cut is also on the cards.
But the update takes on extra significance after activist investor ValueAct last week raised its stake in Rolls from 5.44% to more than 10%. ValueAct is reportedly pressing for a seat on the board and wants Rolls to sell its marine business to concentrate on aero engines.
Analysts believe the company needs to spell out how it will manage the transition from older engines to the next generation. UBS said it needed to “provide a roadmap detailing both the timing and the orders of magnitude of the drivers of cash and profit over the next four to five years”. But Investec believes the recent profit warning may not be the last, given the prospect of lower after-market revenues from the Trent 500 and 800 engine programmes. East has work to do.
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