Ryanair Aircraft

Low-cost company Ryanair had about 70 flights from and for Valencia, Spain. They had 750,000 passengers a year and several hundred people were collaborating with them.

All the flights towards the 10 European destinations will be cancelled starting the 4th of November.

The closing of the Valencia base comes as a result of a lack of agreement between the company and the local authorities. The Irish executives say that the airport did not get enough promotion and neither did the Ryanair routes and flights.

The carrier advised they had invested more than £85 million, consisting of two aircrafts based in Valencia, and have directly employed about 60 persons in Valencia. The good news is that they have the opportunity to keep working for Ryanair, if they accept to relocate to another base.

The airline’s representatives opened the base in August last year, and they were satisfied with how things were going, but they could not go past the local authorities’ refusal to collaborate and to offer them at least part of the privileges and funds they granted the local airline, called Air Nostrum.

Barcelona - Sagrada Familia

Interviews taken to over 500 European business persons have shown that, when it comes to best cities to live in we can find, as always, at the top of this ranking,  London, Paris and Frankfurt, followed by Brussels, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Madrid.

Barcelona and Madrid are amongst the ten best cities to start a business in and remain some of the most attractive European cities and Barcelona is on the first place when it comes to the quality of life.

At the question “What other business centres do you have activities in?” most of the participants to the poll have answered Valencia and Edinburgh and also the Spanish cities of Sevilla and Bilbao.

The criteria according to which they chose certain cities are the presence of qualified personnel, easy market access, high tech communications, international logistics and labour costs. Barcelona was chosen for its quality of life, the people’s language skills, and the quality of tourism establishments. It also scores points for its environmentally-friendly attitude and, in the eyes of many entrepreneurs, for the low labour costs.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2009

The Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix will be replaced by the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2009, according to a decision made by the World Motor Sport Council. The Emirate authorities have issued a proposal according to which the race should take place on an urban circuit during the night, but the Council has not yet decide upon that.

The celebration of the Grand Prix will take place on the 15th of November 2009 and it will be the last of a season which will start in Australia on the 29th of March and which comprises 18 races. The only race on the American continent will be the one organised in Brazil.

The Grand Prix of Spain is scheduled for the 10th of May, the one of Europe -once more celebrated on the urban circuit of Valencia- on the 23rd of August and the one in Brazil on the 1st of November.

The FIA will be the one in charge of the organization of all the above mentioned events and they are seriously thinking about applying a strategy of cost reduction starting 2010.