IN BRIEF (Page 16)
Back in the black
Airlines should return to the black this year with $3.8 billion in profits after six years of losses totaling more than $40 billion, the top industry association said yesterday.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) sharply raised its 2007 profit forecast for the world's airlines from $2.5 billion previously as carriers fill more of their available seats.
Rival bid
Two Los Angeles billionaires could launch a counterbid for Tribune Co after the publisher and broadcaster spurned their earlier offer in favor of a rival bid from Chicago real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday (local time).
Philanthropist Eli Broad and supermarket investor Ron Burkle are meeting with their advisors and "continuing to study Tribune opportunities", the source said.
Higher salaries
A scarcity of skills and growing job vacancies in Britain drove wages higher in March, a survey showed yesterday, suggesting worries among policymakers about pay might not be over yet.
The KPMG/REC Report on Jobs index for pay inflation showed wages among permanent staff registered robust growth, albeit easing from February's 80-month high of 63.3, notching a reading of 62.4 last month.
Manufacturing growth
Orders placed with companies in the German manufacturing sector rose sharply in February on the back of an unusually large number of big-ticket export orders, official data showed yesterday. The Economy Ministry in Berlin calculated that German manufacturing orders jumped by 3.9 percent in February from the figure for January, after slipping by 0.3 percent the previous month.
Agencies
(China Daily 04/05/2007 page16)
