BUSINESS NEWS
Spanish airports boss hits back at ‘dishonest’ Ryanair
The head of Spanish airports authority Aena accused Ryanair of “extortion” and “dishonesty” last week after the carrier announced it would end operations at several airports and cancel flights at others because of a rise in airport charges. Ryanair described Aena’s
increase in fees as “excessive”, but Aena chief Maurici Lucena hit back, suggesting Ryanair “believes government decision-making should bend to the interests of the most powerful companies”. Ryanair regularly threatens to
pull out of destinations if airports raise fees or governments impose taxes. Lucena said Ryanair had
Ryanair is axing some Spanish routes
“threatened to intimidate public authorities” and pointed out Aena proposed an increase of just €0.68 per passenger next year, or 6.6%, while Ryanair had “raised its fares by an average 21% in the past year”. Ryanair said it would cut almost
one million seats from Spanish airports and axe flights to Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Valladolid, Jerez and Tenerife this winter. However, Lucena suggested the carrier had applied to operate more flights than last year and accused it of “the heights of dishonesty”.
Carbon storage experts deal blow to aviation sector’s growth hopes
A study published in science journal Nature has dealt a blow to hopes
that carbon capture and storage would allow aviation and other hard-to-abate sectors to continue to grow in advance of development of net-zero emission fuels. Research at the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria and Imperial College London suggests much less carbon from CO2 can be safely stored underground than previously estimated, making carbon capture less use than supposed in curbing rising temperatures. The study concluded less than 1,500 gigatonnes (GT) of carbon
could be safely stored underground, compared with previous estimates of 10,000-40,000 GT, a limit likely to be reached by 2200. A gigatonne is one billion metric tonnes. Environmental scientists have
warned against an overreliance on carbon capture, pointing out the technology remains largely undeveloped. Carbon capture and storage technologies currently remove just 49 million tonnes of CO2 a year. The researchers suggested
carbon storage should be viewed as a “scarce resource”, not “an unlimited solution” and not “wasted on offsetting avoidable CO2”.
Google cleared in antitrust ruling Ian Taylor
A US judge rejected a Department of Justice (DoJ) request to order the break-up of Google and sale of its Chrome browser last week, but the head of the DoJ’s anti-trust division insisted: “We’re not done.” The court ruling followed a
landmark judgment that Google had operated an illegal monopoly by paying for its search engine to be the default for browsers, leading the DoJ to demand the forced sale of Chrome and potentially also Google’s Android operating system. The judge rejected the DoJ’s
demands, instead ordering Google to share more of its search engine data and restricting it from signing the same kind of exclusive distribution contracts to distribute AI services as it has in relation to search.
travelweekly.co.uk Judge Amit Mehta reasoned
Google’s monopoly of search is now threatened by the “astounding” investment in generative AI which is transforming digital advertising and therefore left intact the tech giant’s ownership of Chrome and its $20 billion-a-year deal with Apple to make Chrome the default search engine for iPhones. Just a day later the European
Commission hit Google with a separate
transformed by generative AI – and transforming travel search – with Google launching its AI Overview and AI Mode tools. Google faces a second US
A US judge has
ruled Google is not required to sell its Chrome browser
€2.95 billion fine for “self-preferencing” its own services in search results. That followed an EC investigation, begun in 2021, into alleged anti-competitive behaviour in online advertising, and a charge of abuse of its dominant position in 2023. Google described the fine as
“unjustified” and said it would appeal. The US and EC rulings came
as search and search engine optimisation (SEO) are being
anti-trust suit after a judge ruled earlier this year that it illegally acquired a monopoly in digital advertising. That case is due to return to court in Virginia later this month with prosecutors seeking the divestment of Google’s online advertising
business.The head of the DoJ’s anti-trust division, Gail Slater – a President-Trump appointee – labelled Google and other tech platforms as “digital tyrants” last week. Analysts suggested the US
ruling left Google free to dominate the emerging AI market. AI companies OpenAI and Perplexity had hoped to acquire Chrome if Google had been forced to sell it.
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PICTURE: Shutterstock/kaskip
PICTURE: Shutterstock/2lttgamingroom
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