lol love it .... Irishman who carries twin shillelaghs and eats accountants for breakfast…
well up the walls at work here .... but do watch what gose on

jurdy

Spanish airline Iberia launches its new low-cost carrier for Europe on Yesterday Sunday, against a backdrop of angry protests by workers who fear for their salaries. “This is a fundamental project for the Iberia group,” chief executive Rafael Sanchez-Lozano told reporters as he unveiled the new carrier, Iberia Express, ahead of Sunday’s inaugural flight from Madrid to Alicante. “It will allow short- and medium-haul operations that are currently not profitable to become profitable, to make the group grow,” he said.  The group behind the venture is the International Airlines Group formed by the merger of Iberia and British Airways in 2011. “It is an absolutely necessary element of the group’s strategy,” he said. But Iberia pilots and other staff have staged several days of strikes in protest at the launch of the new offshoot.  Unions complain that lower salaries are being offered to new recruits on the budget airline and fear that jobs will be shifted away from Iberia. Management says the conditions of existing staff will not be affected. The government has appointed a mediator to handle negotiations between pilots and the management.  A few dozen protesters demonstrated outside Iberia’s headquarters during Friday’s news conference waving banners that read: “Iberia Express will destroy 6,000 jobs.”

Iberia Express will start on 17 routes, serving destinations including Ibiza and Majorca in Spain and further afield: Dublin, Naples and Amsterdam. It plans to expand by the end of 2012 to serve more than 20 destinations, with 14 aircraft and 500 staff carrying 2.5 million passengers this year, the company said with more routes to Republic of Ireland, Italy, Greece, Latvia and the Netherlands,  The carrier aims to turn a profit from this year and to save 100 million euros ($130 million) a year from 2015 by replacing regular Iberia flights on those routes with Iberia Express services.  “We are not a traditional low-cost airline,” said the director of Iberia Express, Luis Gallego. “A customer of Iberia Express will receive the same services as on Iberia,” the regular flagship carrier, he added, explaining that options will range from “express” travel without baggage or assigned seating, to full business class.  “Prices will be more accessible because costs will be lower,” Gallego said. Iberia has come under pressure from its British partner to make savings after the Spanish line logged a loss of 98 million euros compared with some 620 million euros of profits for BA. It faces tough competition meanwhile on its home ground, particularly from Irish budget line Ryanair, which overtook it in passenger numbers last year.

“The majority of (low-cost airline) companies are in the red and others are collapsing,” said Gallego. Barcelona-based budget airline Spanair, which ran 200 flights a day, shut down abruptly in January after going bankrupt, stranding tens of thousands of passengers. Another, Air Europa, has cut hundreds of jobs. 
Ryanair is to introduce a six Euro surcharge on all flights purchased in Spain and across it routes in EU from April 15.
This will appear as ‘coste de gestión’ (management charge) and will be added to the final ticket price with the rest of the charges. The charge is a strategy to promote the airline’s new Ryanair Cash Passport, a MasterCard debit card which will give passengers, yes you got it, a six Euros discount. The card also can be used to take money out of cash machines and to make purchases in stores. Ryanair said it was examining opportunities in Spain. “We certainly see it as an opportunity to expand our base,” it said Michael O’Leary

Shut down European air travel when it erupted in 2010 . What happen now in 2012 ?

Katla Signs point to imminent major volcanic eruption r not

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, April 10 (UPI)—An Icelandic volcano even bigger than the one that shut down European air travel when it erupted in 2010 is showing signs of activity, scientists say.

While the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull left millions of travelers stranded across Europe and cost airlines an estimated $200 million a day for six days, signs of high activity beneath the much larger, neighboring Katla caldera are a possible sign of an impending eruption that could be more dangerous, Andy Hooper at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands said.

Historically, Katla has erupted on average of every 60 years but has not had a significant eruption since 1918, Hooper told Britain’s The Daily Telegraph.

Also, he said, eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull in 1821-23 and 1612 were followed within months by eruptions of Katla, and Katla’s 1918 eruption produced five times as much ash as the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull one.

Erratic movements of the surface of the volcano, measured by precise GPS instruments, and bursts of high earthquake activity have been recorded beneath Katla’s caldera, researchers said.

Both are possible signs that magma has risen to shallower depths beneath the caldera, they said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/04/10/Huge-Iceland-volcano-showing-activity/UPI-86391334102799/#ixzz0bn0VUeK0

if want to watch volcano activity http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/

Worries over Spain

Spanish government’s 10-year cost of borrowing rose back towards 6% - a sign of fear over the country’s creditworthiness . Spanish banks from the European Central Bank hit a new record in March at €227.6 billion ($299 billion) . Spain cuts 27bn euros ($36billion) from its budget this year and freezes public sector salaries to try to address its “extreme” economic situation . The figure has been growing since September and has reached record levels since the European bank in December and February offered low-rate loans to help spur lending in the euro zone . Spanish banks have found it hard to borrow money from banks in other euro zone countries because many in Spain are heavily exposed to the property sector, which has been in a slump since a bubble burst in 2008 . As part of wide-reaching fiscal reforms , the Spanish government has told banks to build up cash reserves to a total €52 billion as a precaution against possible losses in their property portfolios . Last month Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy agreed with the European Commission to reduce Spain’s deficit from 8.5% to 5.3% of GDP in 2012 . Javier Diaz Gimenez, professor of economics at IESE Business School in Madrid , said: “This budget seems to be non-credible .  “They will not be making the 5.3% target agreed with Brussels, because the cuts are insufficient given the growth forecast,” he told BBC News last march . This could mean further cuts are needed before long .