Car of the Year nominations

The nominations for this year's European Car of the Year have been announced.

Instead of the usual shortlist of seven, this year there are eight contenders, whittled down from 41 entrants. The shortlist is: Citroën C4 Picasso, Fiat Grande Punto, Ford S-Max, Honda Civic, Opel/Vauxhall Corsa, Peugeot 207, Skoda Roomster and Volvo C30.

There is no obvious favourite this year, although French and Italian cars do disproportionately well in this award - winners in the past have included cars like the Fiat Bravo/Brava and the Renault 9.

Carphone buys AOL web unit for £370m

Story Can be found at the Finatial Times

By Andrew Parker and Tom Braithwaite
Published: October 11 2006 08:19 Last updated: October 11 2006 13:14

Carphone Warehouse on Wednesday agreed to buy Time Warner’s AOL internet access business in the UK in a move that will make it the country’s number three broadband provider.

Carphone will pay £370m in cash for the AOL business, and will have about 2m broadband customers after the deal is concluded in December.

Carphone’s shares surged 8 per cent to close at 360.25p.
Charles Dunstone, Carphone’s chief executive, hailed the AOL deal as “transformational for our broadband business”.
Carphone is currently the number seven broadband provider in the UK, and the AOL deal should bolster its ambition to become the main alternative to BT in residential fixed-line telephony.
In April, Carphone unleashed a broadband price war by offering “free” high-speed internet access to people who signed up to its £21 per month Talk Talk fixed-line phone service.
Carphone said it expected its group pre-tax profit for the year ending March 31 2007 to be £120m. The purchase of the AOL business, together with strong performance in Carphone’s mobile phone retail outlets, will offset an anticipated £70m operating loss in its broadband arm, which is £20m more than forecast in April.
The loss is a result of higher-than-expected demand for Carphone’s “free” broadband offering, which forced it to hire hundreds of additional call centre staff.
In a trading update, Carphone said 625,000 people had applied for “free” broadband by September 30, although it admitted 78,000 subsequently cancelled or switched to other suppliers. Consumer groups expressed concern over whether Carphone could cope with the integration of AOL’s internet access business.
“Every integration has its teething problems and the fact is that Carphone is still trying to put its own house in order following the unprecedented demand generated by the launch of its free Talk Talk broadband deal,” said Chris Williams, spokesman for uSwitch.com, the price comparison service.
Carphone insisted its existing broadband business would make an operating profit of £30m-£40m in 2008.
It said the purchase of the AOL internet access business, which would be funded through an extension to its existing debt facilities and is subject to clearance by competition authorities, would provide an additional £30m-£40m of profit.
Under the Time Warner deal, Carphone is entering into a revenue-sharing agreement with AOL that will give it a slice of online advertising.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

Airline industry 'in recovery after 9/11'

The aviation industry has made a convincing recovery since taking a battering in the wake of the September 11 attacks, with the budget airline sector faring particularly well, experts said today.

The atrocities provoked an immediate and severe downturn for the global industry, with 2002 seeing 1.5 million flights fewer flights than the year before.

But last year the figure was higher than it had been in 2001 for the first time, with 27.4 million flights being made worldwide compared with 26.7 million in the year of the attacks.

However, the proportionate increase in seats available over the recovery period was greater than that in scheduled flights, because low-cost services – which carry more passengers – grew at a much greater speed, according to air information company Ascend.

The general economic downturn at the time of the attacks and the problems the big carriers were experiencing created a "window of opportunity" for budget airlines, Ascend managing director Gehan Talwatte said.

The total number of worldwide scheduled flights fell by 5.6% in 2002 compared to the previous year.

The number of seats fell by 124 million fewer seats, down 4.2% and the number of airlines and operators going into liquidation leapt by 30%.

But Ascend's overall statistics for the period 2002 to 2005 show that the industry has more than recovered.

The number of scheduled flights increased by 8.8% during that time, while the number of seats was up 11.6%.

For the period 1996 to 2005 the figures were 13.4% for flights the 27.8% for seats.

There have been 328 new airline start-ups in the last three years.

"By and large when you look at the picture today the recovery has been complete," Mr Talwatte said.

While the US industry continued to suffer most of its problems were not related to 9/11, he added.

"There was a much stronger growth in seat availability than in actual scheduled flights themselves," Mr Talwatte said of the global industry's recovery.

"That is a particular result of September 11."

Low-cost carriers, which had already started to take off before the attacks, were at an advantage as the big carriers had to scale back what they offered, he said.

"It was a unique window of opportunity to go out there and capture market share, almost entirely on price.

"September 11 wasn't just something that affected the aviation industry

"People started looking for was to save money and for low cost carriers the timing was perfect."

More than 20% of flights in the US are now with budget airlines, while in Europe the figure is 14%, Mr Talwatte added.