The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Boeing says 787s for United Airlines are delayed
- EU will lose Turkey if it hasn't joined by 2023
- UBS slashing jobs in restructuring of investment bank
| Boeing says 787s for United Airlines are delayed Posted: 30 Oct 2012 06:26 PM PDT NEW YORK: Boeing Co said delivery of at least two 787 jets for United Airlines was taking longer than expected, a surprise hitch in delivery to its first U.S. customer that is set to disappoint some customers wanting to ride the new fuel-efficient aircraft. Boeing said it is working diligently to complete United Airlines' next 787s for delivery but that the process is "taking a few days longer than anticipated." The delay, while short, is another missed date for the 787 program which was delayed for nearly 3-1/2 years to address quality problems with the jet that uses substantial amounts of lightweight composite materials to replace aluminum in the fuselage and wings. United took delivery of its first 787 in September and is due to start carrying customers with it on November 4. The airline is scheduled to receive five of the jets this year. United said on Tuesday that Boeing told it the second plane was not ready for delivery and the airline said it believes all of the four remaining jets could be delayed. It has begun notifying customers who were scheduled to fly on the second 787 jet that they will travel on a different model of plane instead. "We're offering to refund or re-book customers who specifically intended to fly on one of the early Dreamliner flights," said Christen David, director of corporate communications for United Continental Holdings Inc. "We believe this year's subsequent 787 deliveries could be delayed as well, but we are hopeful that we will still receive four more 787s this year," said David. She declined to say what issue had delayed the plane delivery, or when it was due to be delivered now. Boeing said it was not one specific issue with the plane and declined to elaborate. It said the issues would not affect delivery of 787s to other customers. "The process for completing an airplane requires thoroughness and a disciplined adherence to process," said Tim Bader, a Boeing spokesman. "We've laid out a challenging schedule for the team. But we've also told them we cannot compromise on the rigor with which we finish our work, test our products and certify them for delivery." The 787 Dreamliner, a wide-body jet, seats 219 passengers in United's configuration, and is billed as Boeing most fuel-efficient jet. It was initially scheduled to enter service in May 2008, but delays pushed its first flight back to December 2009 and it entered service on October 26, 2011, with launch customer All Nippon Airways. - Reuters |
| EU will lose Turkey if it hasn't joined by 2023 Posted: 30 Oct 2012 06:24 PM PDT BERLIN: The European Union will lose Turkey if it doesn't grant it membership by 2023, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. It was the first time Erdogan has given an indication of how long Ankara might continue down the path towards EU entry, and his comments came at a time of growing alienation between Turkey and a political entity it feels has cold-shouldered it. Turkey's bid to join the EU, officially launched in 2005, has virtually ground to a halt in recent years due to opposition from core EU members and the failure to find a solution to the dispute over the divided island of Cyprus. Asked during a panel discussion in Berlin on Tuesday night if Turkey would be an EU member by 2023, Erdogan answered, "they probably won't string us along that long. But if they do string us along until then the European Union will lose out, and at the very least they will lose Turkey." Turkey will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its foundation as a republic from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in 2023. The predominantly Muslim but secular country of some 74 million people would strengthen the European Union, Erdogan said. Some 6 million Turks already live within the European Union, about 3 million of them in Germany, he said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who Erdogan will meet on Wednesday, opposes full EU membership and favours a privileged partnership instead, although foreign minister Guido Westerwelle supports Ankara's bid. Speaking at the opening of Turkey's new embassy building in Berlin, Westerwelle criticised the impasse in accession talks. "It is bad for both sides and next year, we want to make a new beginning to overcome this standstill." Earlier this month Turkey's economy minister Zafer Caglayan scoffed at the EU's winning the Nobel Peace Prize and condemned the bloc as the most hypocritical organisation in the world, saying it had "kept Turkey waiting at its door for 50 years." Turkey has completed only one of 35 policy "chapters" every accession candidate must conclude. All but 13 policy chapters in Ankara's negotiations are blocked and the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, says Turkey does not yet meet required standards on human rights and freedom of speech. - Reuters |
| UBS slashing jobs in restructuring of investment bank Posted: 30 Oct 2012 06:19 PM PDT ZURICH: Swiss banking giant UBS intends to cut nearly 10,000 jobs worldwide in a restructuring of its hard-hit investment bank, the group said, reporting that reorganisation costs had pushed it deep into loss in the third quarter. The costs switched the Swiss bank's third-quarter results into a 2.2-billion Swiss franc net loss compared with the one billion net profit it had reported during the JulySeptember period last year. "This decision has been a difficult one, particularly in a business such as ours that is all about its people," UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti said in a statement, referring to the job cuts. "Some reductions will result from natural attrition and we will take whatever measures we can to mitigate the overall effect," he said, vowing that "our people will be supported and treated with care." The Zurich-based bank said that cuts in its overall staff numbers to about 54,000 by 2015 was a necessary part of a restructuring of its investment bank, including shedding some of its high-risk activities and basically withdrawing from the fixed-income business which had burdened it with catastrophic losses during the 2008 "subprime" crisis. UBS, which counted nearly 64,000 employees at the end of September, said the restructuring would save 5.4 billion Swiss francs (US$5.8bil) over the next three years. UBS said in its earnings statement that it had taken a one-time charge of 3.1 billion Swiss francs linked to the restructuring and a debt-related charge of 863 million. Before taxes, UBS said it was hit by a loss of 2.5 billion Swiss francs, but that adjusted for the impairment losses and a restructuring provision, it posted a pre-tax profit of 1.4 billion. Ermotti hailed the company's earnings, stressing that all the bank's activities had "delivered improved profitability in the third quarter", and that it was rolling out its strategy "well ahead of schedule". "We are confident that the actions we are taking now will ensure the firm's long-term success in the fundamentally changed regulatory and economic environment, and will deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders going forward," he said in a joint comment with UBS chairman Axel Weber. The bank said it was withdrawing from lines of business "that do not meet their cost of capital sustainably or are in areas with high operational complexity or long tail risks likely to weigh on future returns." - AFP |
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