PLANET BUSINESS

Today's other stories in brief

THE NUMBERS

19

Percentage drop in the Iseq index of Irish shares between its record high in February and noon yesterday.

€1 million

Price tag on the entire contents of the Jurys Ballsbridge hotel, including nine kitchen sinks, paid by an unnamed UK hotel chain.

66

Average percentage rise in turnover seen by English football clubs in the first season after they move to a new stadium, according to Deloitte

18.2 million

Number of dangerous toys recalled worldwide by toymaker Mattel over fears about unsafe levels of lead in paint and loose magnets.

QUOTE of the WEEK

"It is insane for any airline to walk away from a profitable route with 330,000 passengers a year. Bloody madness."

- Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary leaps into the "madness" surrounding Aer Lingus's decision to axe its Shannon to Heathrow service, holding a Save Our Shannon (SOS) press conference.

QUOTE of the WEEK 2

"We are not going to allow Aer Lingus to treat its Belfast-based pilots as second-class citizens who can be paid less and treated worse than their colleagues in Dublin."

- Irish Airline Pilots' Association president Evan Cullen on why Aer Lingus pilots plan to strike next Tuesday and Wednesday.

GOOD WEEK

Airbus

After a spot of difficulty with some wiring faults, the now fully wired A380 super-jumbo (left) will make its first commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney on October 25th, two years behind schedule. Tickets for the historic flight will be auctioned on eBay.

Eirgrid

Consumers can look forward to a winter without torches, candles and gas camping stoves, as Eirgrid, the company that runs that national electricity grid, said the threat of blackouts has fallen to its lowest level in years thanks to new generating capacity.

Forgetful credit-card holders

Barclaycard has signed up more than 1,000 shops in London to accept a touch-and-pay credit card, which means consumers can pay for small items without having to remember their four-digit pin numbers.The knowledge economy

BAD WEEK

The knowledge economy

One in eight Leaving Certificate students received an honours grade in higher-level maths, which means the majority are excluded from taking most engineering and technology degree courses and which does not exactly help the Government's campaign to upskill the nation.

Nokia

That old overheating battery problem, last witnessed on about four million Dell laptops, has hit the Finnish mobile phone firm, which is offering to replace 46 million BL-5C batteries after reports that short-circuiting was taking place while the phones were being charged.

Wal-Mart

Often seen as a barometer of the US retail sector, the supermarket giant blamed the economy for a lower than expected quarterly profit, with chief executive Lee Scott saying it was no secret that customers were running out of money towards the end of the month.