EasyJet Helped By Lengthy Air France Strike

EasyJet has lifted its annual profit forecast, as a result of lower fuel costs and a lengthy strike at competitor Air France-KLM.

The budget carrier said its full-year pre-tax profit is now expected to be around £577.5m, up from guidance given during July's third quarter of around £557.5m.

The new full-year estimate is above analysts' expectations.

"EasyJet has continued to execute its strategy," chief executive Carolyn McCall said.

"This has enabled easyJet to deliver record profits for the fourth year in a row."

The company now intends to reward shareholders as a result.

"This will also lead to our largest every ordinary dividend payment as we are also proposing to increase the proportion of our profits after tax paid in dividends from 33% to 40%," Ms McCall said.

EasyJet said it expect the two-week strike by Air France in September would add around £5m to its revenue.

The strike cost easyJet's rival hundreds of million of euros in lost revenue.

The travel industry has long been squeezed by rising fuel costs, however in recent months benefits have been seen.

Crude oil prices have dropped around 20% since June, which has helped those with shorter hedging strategies.

On Thursday, Tui Travel cited dropping fuel prices as a factor in its improved results.

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Singapore Swoops In £1bn UK Airports Deal

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

A state-backed Singaporean investment fund is poised to participate in a £1bn takeover of the UK's biggest regional airports that will be announced within days.

Sky News has learnt that the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore (GIC) is expected to take a slice of the equity in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports, alongside Ferrovial, the Spanish infrastructure giant, and Macquarie, the Australian bank.

GIC's involvement is understood to be in the process of being finalised although it may not be publicly named as an investor when the deal is announced early next week, according to insiders.

The three airports, which collectively handle approximately 13 million passengers annually, are being sold by Heathrow Airport Holdings (HAH), the parent company of Britain's busiest airport.

Sky News revealed Ferrovial's interest in buying the three airports nearly ten months ago, with HAH's board keen to offload the regional sites as it concentrates on securing backing for a third runway.

The debate about Britain's aviation policy will reach a crucial stage next year, when Sir Howard Davies's commission makes a recommendation about the most appropriate location for new runway capacity.

The Commission's verdict will be made after the general election, and is effectively now a two-way fight between Heathrow and Gatwick, with the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, having seen his concept of a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary rejected by Sir Howard.

The three regional airports owned by HAH are the last remnants of the former BAA's monopoly over the UK's aviation infrastructure.

Next week's deal has been held up because of the complexity of HAH's own shareholder structure, with Ferrovial, which took over BAA in 2006, having steadily reduced its investment in Heathrow in recent years by selling small chunks of shares to sovereign wealth funds in China, Qatar and Singapore, including GIC.

Last year, the Universities Superannuation Scheme, one of the UK's biggest pension fund managers, bought an 8.65% stake in Heathrow's holding company, a move which saw Ferrovial's shareholding lowered to 25%.

Shortly after Ferrovial's takeover of BAA, competition authorities ordered the company to break itself up by selling Stansted, Gatwick and either Glasgow or Edinburgh, the latter of which was offloaded two years ago.

Heathrow accounts for more than 95% of HAH's annual profits, making the sale of the other regional assets "inevitable" within the next three years, said one.

HAH declined to comment on Friday.

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Life At Apple 'Like Working In Nuclear Plant'

Two former Apple managers have described the pressure cooker atmosphere of working for the technology giant.

Ex-employees Don Melton and Nitin Ganatra told a tech podcast that staff are expected to be permanently on call - even receiving emails from executives in the middle of the night.

"It's a lot like working in a nuclear power plant, but you don't get one of those protective suits," Mr Melton said.

"It's a lot of radiation and you either learn to survive it or you die."

He said Sunday is a work night for everybody at Apple because the executive meeting takes place the next day.

"So you had your phone out there, you were sitting in front of your computer, it didn't matter if your favourite show was on.

Former Apple executive Scott Forstall

"This was especially worse after The Sopranos ended because for a while there, you could count on the hour that The Sopranos was on that (former Apple executive) Scott Forstall wouldn't bug you because he was watching The Sopranos. And that was your reprieve.

"You could go to the bathroom, you could have a conversation with your family, you know, whatever. But after that ..."

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1. Gallery: Apple Blunders Pile Up

   It has been a difficult week for Apple after the hugely successful launch of the iPhone 6, with a number of flaws exposed in its products

2. The mishaps are the latest in a series following the death of Apple's inspirational co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011

3. The new man at the helm, Tim Cook, has inevitably found him a difficult act to follow. He's had his successes, but also a number of lows:

4. When Apple decided to replace Google as its built-in map provider in 2012, it promised a slick interface featuring 3D modelled cities. Instead it produced a system littered with errors

5. Launched just before Mr Jobs' death, Siri, the voice assistant on iPhone and iPad. remains a novelty feature to many users owing to its unpredictability when interpreting voice commands

6. A number of Hollywood stars saw nude photos leaked online, and it was claimed that iCloud accounts may have been broken into as a result of hackers guessing passwords

7. Apple was renowned for keeping details of upcoming releases secret, but now the tech specs of new gadgets are often known well in advance, usually thanks to blogs in China

8. Some users have complained the iPhone 6 Plus bends out of shape in a tight pocket. One YouTube user uploaded a video of him bending it across the middle

9. The recent move into the smart watch market with Apple Watch has captivated tech analysts, but the new arrival does not significantly improve on existing devices

10. An update to iOS 8 to fix some problems actually made things worse. Some users' iPhones and iPads 'bricked' - meaning they could not connect to phone or data networks

11. Experts have warned Apple's OS X operating system has a security flaw which could be exploited by hackers. They say it is even more serious than the notorious Heartbleed bug

12. Despite its problems Apple is still one of the world's biggest tech companies. It makes billions of dollars every year, and judging by the clamour for the new iPhone that will continue

He also touched on the chief executive Tim Cook's notorious working hours.

"When you hear the so-called apocryphal stories about Tim Cook coming to work in the wee hours and staying late, it's not just some PR person telling you stories to make you think that Apple executives work really hard like that. They really do that.

"I mean, these people are nuts. They're just, they are there all the time."

He also revealed his advice to wannabe managers: "When someone came into my office and said they want to be a manager, I asked them 'How did you sleep last night?'

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1. Gallery: Fans Queue For New iPhone

   Eager Apple fans around the world have been queuing up to buy the new iPhone 6. A man wearing a mask depicting Apple co-founder Steve Jobs holds up a cardboard cut-out of the phone as he walks into the Apple store in Tokyo

2. Traders buy the newly released Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones from people who bought the phones earlier from the Apple store at Hong Kong's Mongkok shopping district

5. People try out the new piece of technology at the Apple store in Berlin

7. Customers scuffle for their place in line as they wait to buy the phone on the first day of sales outside the Apple store at Grand Central Terminal in New York

8. Crowds gather ahead of the launch of the iPhone 6 at the Apple store Covent Garden, London

12. Protesters demonstrate against what they see as issues in labour practices adopted by some suppliers used by Apple at one of the firm's stores in Hong Kong

"And they said 'Oh, fairly well' and I said 'Good, because that's the last good night's sleep you're going to get'."

Meanwhile Nitin Ganatra described how he viewed himself as a "slacker" for only checking emails four times a day while on vacation.

Despite the long hours, the most senior employees at Apple earn large amounts of money. In 2013 Tim Cook earned $74m (£46m) in salary and stock options.

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BP Appeals 'Gross Negligence' Oil Spill Ruling

Oil giant BP has asked for a court ruling that it was "grossly negligent" for the Gulf of Mexico spill to be overturned.

BP made the "motion" request to a US judge to reconsider a judgment handed down last month, which increases its potential liabilities by about $18bn (£11.1bn).

It said Louisiana district court Judge Carl Barbier's ruling was based on evidence he had agreed to exclude from the ongoing trial.

The company said he should therefore review his decision or give it a new trial over the 2010 spill, which saw millions of barrels of oil spread in the gulf.

Motions can be lodged ahead of a formal appeal.

The evidence in question surrounds expert testimony about how the Macondo well's casing was weakened and breached, part of a series of eight alleged errors linked to the blowout.

"BP respectfully requests that the court eliminate its theory that this series of acts amounted to gross negligence," the company said in its motion.

"In the alternative, BP would be entitled to a new trial."

The ruling last month assigned BP 67% of responsibility for the spill, while drilling rig owner Transocean Ltd was assigned 30% of blame, and cementing contractor Halliburton 3%.

The legal action is the latest motion by BP to curb fines stemming from the case, however Judge Barbier has rejected most of them.

The company has already set aside more than $42bn (£26bn) in provisions for the worst offshore spill in US history, which killed 11 workers.

The additional $18bn fines may come when the judge assigns damages under the federal Clean Water Act, next year.

BP's shares are now trading at around 30% lower than before the accident, and have never fully recovered.

On Thursday, Brent crude was trading at a 27-month low, putting more pressure on the industry with price-cutting.

The company's shares are now trading at virtually the same price as this time last year.

The oil major is an important part of many UK pension fund portfolios.

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Morrisons To Price Match Aldi And Lidl

Morrisons has announced a new price match system, which is set to exacerbate Britain's brutal supermarket war.

The fourth biggest grocery chain said that in addition to price matching Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, it would now do the same with discounters Aldi and Lidl.

The new price comparison and points system will see users automatically refunded card points, along with extra points for selected products and fuel.

A Sky News investigation has shown it is the only store currently matching both main chains and discounters.

But shoppers will only accrue points if a supermarket product can be bought cheaper elsewhere or on special promotion, or on fuel purchases.

Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips said: "In May, we announced that we were lowering our prices permanently.

Morrisons boss Dalton Philips insists shoppers will benefit from the system

"Now we're launching Match & More the most comprehensive price match and points scheme in the UK.

"Because it price matches the discounters, the Match & More card will provide the ultimate guarantee about Morrisons' value-for-money."

However, sources close to one of the discount rivals dismissed the new system, saying its prices would remain up to 50% cheaper than at Morrisons.

This year's ongoing price war has seen the country's big four chain under pressure, from Germany's Aldi and Lidl at one end, and premium providers Waitrose and M&S at the other.

On Wednesday, the boss of rival Sainsbury's, said its own drop in quarterly sales was at risk of continuing, due to food price deflation and undercutting by rivals.

The main chains have been undercut by 'hard discounters' Aldi and Lidl

On average, 10 Morrisons points will be accrued for every penny spent. The scheme will begin on Friday and will be nationwide by Christmas.

It said a database of thousands of comparable items would be automatically checked, and if a rival's product was 60p cheaper then 600 points would be added to a shopper's account.

When 5,000 points are reached a customer is entitled to a £5 voucher at the checkout till.

The price war has caused significant harm to the share price of the big chains over the past year.

Morrisons has lost more than 42%, Sainsbury's has dropped 40% and Tesco has lost 50%.

The new system from Morrison's comes as it tries to claw market share, as it has been slow to embrace both online shopping and urban convenience stores.

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Government Spends £2m On Visitors' VIP Lounges

More than £2m of taxpayers' money has been spent on VIP airport suites for foreign dignitaries, it has been revealed.

New figures show the outlay of £2.4m by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) between 2010 and 2014.

Just over £2m of the money went on giving visiting foreign dignitaries VIP services at airports, while more than £100,000 was spent on the Foreign Secretary using them.

The response to the Freedom of Information (FOI) request that contained the figures also said the Foreign Secretary was the only individual associated with the FCO who used VIP facilities when travelling on business.

William Hague held the position from May 2010 until July this year.

Most of the FCO's spending on VIP airport facilities was for visits by foreign heads of state and other dignitaries.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was among the official visitors to the UK

There were two state visits in each of the four years, while 52 were classed as "guest of government", five were described as "events" and a total of 104 were "official visits".

The FOI response, which was posted on the FCO website, said: "In November 2012 we reviewed our position on the use of VIP suites and as a result moved away from part owning the Heathrow Royal Suite to becoming a contracted customer for private flights.

"This represented better value for money and greater freedom to use other facilities. Our contract with Heathrow Airport Limited costs the FCO £100,000 per annum, in return for 50 private flight movements with exclusive rights to the suite whenever required."

The figures showed that overall spending by the FCO on using airport VIP lounges was almost halved in 2013/14 compared to the previous year.

The totals in each year were £689,233 in 2010/11, £743,621.76 in 2011/12, £620,433 in 2012/13 and £326,694 in 2013/14.

The Heathrow VIP website says departing guests enjoy an "oasis of calm" in a private lounge before being chauffeur driven directly to the aircraft.

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US Jobless Rate Now At Lowest Since July 2008

The unemployment rate in the United States has dropped to 5.9%, the lowest level since July 2008.

The jobless rate dropped by 0.2% from the August figure.

Official data showed that the US economy created 248,000 non-farm jobs in September.

The Labor Department said employers added 69,000 more jobs in July and August, higher than the government had previously estimated.

It said job creation was strongest in the restaurant industry, health care, food and beverage stores and administrative services.

More modest additions were recorded in construction and government hiring.

The improved figures come after President Barack Obama touted his administration's economic achievements in a speech on Thursday.

The economy is one of the top issues in voters' minds as the November mid-term elections near.

The lower jobless rate, combined with the surge in hiring, could ratchet up pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate earlier than expected.

Most economists have predicted that the Fed would start raising rates in mid-2015.

"This number will continue to support the notion that the economy is growing ... (but) isn't so strong that the Fed will raise rates anytime soon," Kingsview Asset Management portfolio manager Paul Nolte said.

With rate hike expectations mounting, the dollar pushed higher on foreign exchanges after the figures were published at 1.30pm BST.

Markets across Europe except Germany's DAX, which was closed for the day, jumped on release of the new data.

In broader economic news, officials said the US trade gap narrowed in August to $40.1bn (£25bn).

The Commerce Department said the revised figure was $200m (£125m) down on the first estimate.

Economists had expected the trade gap to have grown to $40.9bn.

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JPMorgan Cyber Attack Hits 83m Bank Accounts

More than 80 million bank account details were breached during a summer cyber attack on America's biggest bank, it has been revealed.

JPMorgan Chase & Co said that a security breach in the summer allowed details of 76 million household accounts and 7 million small business accounts were at risk of compromise.

The scale of the breach further heightens concern over the safety of consumer data kept by finance, retailers and other organisations.

JPMorgan said names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses were among the data stolen.

But it said only customers registered on Chase.com and JPMorganOnline, and ChaseMobile and JPMorgan Mobile apps, were affected.

It reassured customers that no fraud had been detected as a result of the breach.

The bank did not believe the breach included account numbers, passwords, social security numbers or birth dates.

The US has been hit by a series of data breaches in the last year, with big name retailers such as Target and Home Depot targeted.

This latest breach has shown that America's banks are not impregnable in the cyber domain.

Home Depot discovered a bug in checkouts that affected 56m bank cards

"This is really a slap in the face of the American financial services system," Gartner security analyst Avivah Litan said. "Honestly, this is a crisis point."

"You have to be paranoid now ... There is no such thing as data confidentiality anymore. Everything is out there."

JPMorgan is America's biggest bank by assets and working with federal officials investigating the cyber attack.

CEO Jamie Dimon said earlier that by the year's end the company would be spending $250m (£155m) annually on cyber defence.

It discovered the intrusion on its servers in mid-August and has since determined that the breach began as early as June, spokeswoman Patricia Wexler said.

"We have identified and closed the known access paths," she said.

The spokeswoman declined to comment on whether or not the bank knew who was behind the sever breach.

She also declined to comment on whether JPMorgan has been able to determine who was behind the cyber attack on its servers.

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John Lewis Boss Sorry For 'Hopeless' France Jibe

The boss of the John Lewis Partnership has apologised to France, after saying the country was "finished".

Managing director Andy Street held up an olive branch after a series of negative comments about the country were published on the front page of The Times.

He had made critical comments at an event for entrepreneurs in London that included a competition for start-up businesses.

Mr Street described France as "sclerotic, hopeless and downbeat," and urged British business people with investments in the country "to get them out quickly".

He had said: "I have never been to a country more ill at ease … nothing works and worse, nobody cares about it."

Mr Street is the most senior executive in the partnership, which shares an equal percentage of profits amongst all workers.

He joked to the audience that an award given to the company at the World Retail Congress in Paris was "made of plastic and is frankly revolting".

"If I needed any further evidence of a country in in decline, here it is. Every time I (see it), I shall think, 'God help France.'"

However, on Friday, Mr Street said in a statement to Sky News that his comments "were supposed to be lighthearted views, and tongue in cheek".

He added that "on reflection I clearly went too far. I regret the comments, and apologise unreservedly".

But the Gallic wrath may already be building, despite there being no John Lewis or Waitrose store presence in France.

After informing readers that Mr Street called the Eurostar terminal of Gard du Nord the "squalor pit of Europe", Les Echos called his comments "bitter and angry".

It then warned readers that John Lewis has plans to roll-out a website catering for French customers, with pricing in euros.

Les Echos then quipped: "The fuss is already assured."

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Labour Peer McFall Joins Digital Bank Atom

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Lord McFall, a former chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, is joining the board of Atom, the first British digital-only bank that hopes to launch next year.

Sky News understands that the Labour peer is among a crop of directors being appointed by the new venture, which is being set up by the co-founder of Metro Bank and former boss of First Direct.

Lord McFall, who will become Atom's senior independent director, was also previously a director of NBNK Investments, which was set up after the banking crisis to buy assets from the UK's bailed-out banks.

NBNK was trumped in the auction of 630 Lloyds Banking Group branches by the Co-operative Group, a deal which collapsed as the mutually-owned lender came close to implosion amid the scandal over Paul Flowers, its former chairman.

Lord McFall's appointment will be announced shortly, according to an insider, alongside those of Jon Hogan, a former executive at ANZ Bank and First Direct; and Bridget Rosewell, a director of Ulster Bank and Network Rail.

Atom is awaiting regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority but hopes to launch next year.

The new business will not have any physical branches and will be primarily accessible through the internet and digital apps.

Anthony Thomson, Atom's chairman, and Mark Mullen, its chief executive, are understood to be planning to offer a full range of products aimed at personal and small business customers.

These will include current and savings accounts, as well as loan products.

It is not clear whether the pair have secured external financial backing for Atom, which headquartered in northeast England, close to the Newcastle base of Virgin Money, which this week announced plans to float on the stock market.

The plans for Atom come amid an explosion in the demand for digital banking services and a commensurate decline in footfall at thousands of retail bank branches.

Earlier this year, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) published research showing that UK-based customers conducted almost 40 million mobile and internet banking transactions each week last year.

The BBA insisted that branches would "remain at the heart of banking in the 21st century", but it emerged just days later that the taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland was closing 44 branches, sparking a fresh political row.

Under revised rules aimed at bolstering competition, the FCA has pledged to decide on banking licence applications within six months.

The process historically took several years, frustrating Treasury officials in the aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis, which sparked the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, and the disappearance of several other UK banks.

Some applicants, such as Home & Savings Bank, a telephone and internet-based lender, were effectively forced to abandon their plans because of difficulties securing regulatory approval.

Metro Bank's launch in 2010 as the first new high street bank for more than a century came after a similarly tortuous process.

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