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City & finance
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London hotels’
poor year-end
BUSINESS advisory firm Deloitte has described
2008 as a year of two halves for London hoteliers.
Until August, hotels in London reported strong
revenue per available room (revpar) growth of
7.2%. Although occupancy had seen a slight fall,
it was still strong at 80.7%. Average room rates
were the main driver, rising 7.4% to £132.
However, as the global economic crisis
unfolded, revpar in September fell 5.4% and
occupancy tumbled. October fared slightly
better but it too saw revpar decline 3.8%
compared with the same month last year.
In November revpar dropped 8% to £102,
occupancy fell by 4.7 percentage points to 80%
and average room rates dropped 3.5% to £128.
Marvin Rust, Deloitte’s hospitality managing
partner, said: “Although the last quarter results
BA hit by premium
were inevitably going to be weak, year-end re-
sults are expected to remain in positive territory.”
traffic fall of 12%
Blue Oar board
Chris Gray.
as a result of reduced capacity, but the fall in
faces ousting
BRITISH Airways’ premium traffic dropped 12% business traffic was the biggest for four months.
last month compared with December 2007, but Meanwhile, Ryanair has extended the
its economy business fared better, dropping 1.7% deadline for Aer Lingus shareholders to accept
THE DIRECTORS of leisure thanks to the Christmas upturn. its takeover bid, after it attracted little interest
and travel industry City The carrier’s overall passenger traffic was by the original closing date.
analysts Blue Oar Securities down by 3.4% but, with capacity trimmed by 3%, The Irish no-frills carrier asked all Aer Lingus
were facing being ousted by the load factor, or the proportion of seats sold, shareholders to accept its £638 million bid by
its new owners this week as dropped just 0.2 percentage points to 76.7%. January 5, even though it had been rejected by
they consider a management EasyJet, however, saw its number of seats the Aer Lingus board.
buyout. sold rise 7.3% to 3.1 million in December Ryanair already owns 29.82% of Aer Lingus
Evolve, which completed the buyout of Aim- compared with the same month in 2007. Load and on Monday said its offer had been accepted
listed investment bank Blue Oar, the parent of factors rose 3.3 percentage points to 82.3%. by only 29.83%, including its own stake.
the stockbroking arm, over Christmas in a hos- It carried 44.5 million passengers in the 12 The airline will now extend the offer
tile takeover, had indicated it welcomed the po- months to December 2008, a rise of 16.6% until 1pm on
tential buyout. on the year before, and load factors rose 1.2 February 13.
But this week it called for an extraordinary percentage points to 84.6%. Ryanair is offer-
shareholder meeting after insisting the existing Douglas McNeill, analyst at Blue Oar Secu- ing ¤1.40 per Aer
board of Andrew Monk (pictured), Mark Brumby rities, said the increases were achieved on Lingus share.
and Peter Joy be replaced, saying the public an- capacity growth of only 3%, low by A previous bid
nouncement of the potential buyout meant there easyJet’s standards, and concerns in 2006 was rejected
was a conflict of interest. It wants to set up a new remained about short-term by the European Com-
board. demand for leisure travel. mission on competition
The successful £15m bid by Evolve, which now He said BA’s load factor grounds.
owns 54.2% of Blue Oar, saw chairman Gavin Casey performance was the
step down saying the deal devalued the business. best in four months, ■ Aviation news, p28
16 09.01.2009
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