Business

Irish airline Ryanair has said Germany’s €8 tourist tax is the reason it has cut 30pc of its flights to and from Frankfurt Hahn. From next summer, the airline will cut its aircraft base from 11 to eight, leading to the loss of my more than 100 flights per week. The company said that as a result, Frankfurt Hahn will lose one million passengers per year. Ryanair added that it was closing nine routes from Frankfurt Han to Agadir, Berlin, Gdansk, Gothenburg, Klagenfurt, Prague, Santiago, Seville and Wroclaw. Some of these closures may happen before the summer months. The airline, which has always been vocal about tourist taxes, said the…

KBC Bank Ireland is piloting mortgage arrears resolution options with customers who are experiencing difficulty in meeting their mortgage repayments. The options being piloted include a loan term extension option and a three-year interest only mortgage solution. “KBC is continuously assessing the solutions it provides to customers in difficulty. We plan to identify the most appropriate solutions through our pilot programmes with customers.  Once this process is complete, KBC will offer solutions to customers based on their specific financial needs which will be assessed on a case by case basis,” said John Reynolds, CEO KBC Bank Ireland. “As always the first step for all customers is to engage with the…

Today – Friday, 23 May – was the busiest day of operations for Aer Lingus Regional , operated by Stobart Air, since the airline signed its franchise agreement with Aer Lingus in March 2010. Over 5,500 passengers were booked to travel on 100 flights on all 27 of the airline’s routes. It is the second time since the franchise agreement that the airline has flown over 5,000 passengers in a single day. Due to strong demand, a number of extra flights were added on the airline’s routes today to Cardiff and Bristol for the Heineken Cup Final. The Kerry-Dublin route today continues to see strong demand.  Last month the airline reported a 38pc increase in…

Aspen Pharma has announced 42 new jobs at its Citywest European operations centre. The new jobs will bring Aspen’s total workforce in Ireland to 100 within the next 12 months. The company, which supplies branded and generic pharmaceuticals in more than 150 countries, first established an operation in Ireland in 2010. It also set up a global regulatory, pharmacovigilance, quality assurance and supply projects centre in Citywest in 2012. The announcement was made this morning by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton . Aspen’s investment is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland. The Minister described pharma as one of the Government’s key target sectors…

NDRC Inventorium and IIA initiative to accelerate 20 SMEs into online trading Banks are under-utilising a vital new source of revenue growth as many have been slow to respond to the digital innovations, according to Ciarán Kelly, financial services partner, PwC, who addressed the Irish Banking Federation Conference this week. This is despite strong digital awareness and usage among bank customers and the fact that they have shown a willingness to pay for these, he said. Speaking at the conference, Kelly said: “Given the pressures the financial crisis has had on the banking sector, banks have understandably been slow to embrace the digital innovation customers now expect.  Social media is changing customer…

Irish energy services company Crowley Carbon has launched a boiler aimed at the commercial and industrial market, which it says has been proven to deliver savings of up to 80pc on energy costs. Based on high pressure heat pump technology, the Thermal Server was developed in-house and is manufactured in Ireland. It can be driven by gas engine or electricity and utilises waste heat from manufacturing or geothermal sources to deliver low-cost hot water to businesses. This hot water can then be used in a wide range of installations, including breweries, dairies and other food processing plants. Over the past 24 months has been piloted within Dawn Meats in Ireland and the…

Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, operating as Vistakon Ireland , is investing over €100m in expanding its Vistakon Ireland contact lens production facility in Limerick. The 18-month construction phase at the facility at the National Technology Park in Plassey is expected to create 200 temporary jobs. Vistakon Ireland was set up in Limerick in 1996 and is one of several Johnson & Johnson companies operating in Ireland. Between them the companies employ around 2,500 people. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care produces the Acuvue range of soft disposable contact lenses. “Limerick was chosen for this strategically important investment because of its track record over many years in providing quality products and excellent customer…

The Burlington Hotel in Dublin 4 is on the market with a guide price of between €65m and €75m. The 4 star hotel, which has 501 bedrooms and extensive conferencing facilities on 3.9 acres of land, is being sold through CBRE Hotels on behalf of receiver Paul McCann of Grant Thornton. In 2007, property developer Bernard McNamara bought the hotel for €288m. McNamara had planned to demolish the building in favour of a new office and commercial development. According to CBRE Hotels, the Burlington is by far Dublin’s largest hotel and the “sale represents a rare and unique opportunity to acquire a substantial unbranded freehold property in the heart of…

Aviva slashes Irish redundancies, creates new jobs in Galway Aviva will now be cutting fewer jobs in Ireland than had been anticipated when it announced redundancies last October. While the company had said there would be 950 job losses last year, under 550 are now to be made redundant. It is also creating 220 new jobs in claims insurance and direct sales in Galway. Recruitment is due to start in the summer. Some 180 jobs at Aviva Europe are already gone. According to Unite regional officer Brian Gallagher, the union is still disappointed at the number of job losses, but noted they had been reduced with new jobs secured in…

Six-fold increase in number of direct selling parties in Ireland Irish business activity levels have improved further through the summer months to push the KBC Bank Ireland /Chartered Accountants Ireland Business Sentiment Index to its strongest levels since the survey began in late 2006. The improvement was broadly based, with all sectors reporting an improvement in business conditions and all the components of the index stronger than in the second quarter. The survey rose to 124.8 in the third quarter of 2014 from 121.8 in the previous three-month period. This increase puts the index at its highest level since the survey was first compiled in the final quarter of 2006. The improvement is…