Judging by the extensive reporting yesterday of the conversation that led to the dismissal as Irish manager of Giovanni Trapattoni, the Aer Rianta VIP area in Dublin Airport must have been a densely populated area on Wednesday morning.

Cork Airport is hopeful of breaking even by the end of 2014, despite showing no real improvement in losses last year.

A book documenting the latter-day history of Ireland’s trading schooners has been launched four years after its author died.

THERE was a time when China was associated in Irish minds with foreign marvels such as kung fu, fireworks and tinned lychees.

A prime development site in Killarney, Co Kerry is on the market for €3m, nine years after it changed hands for nearly €8m.

PRE-TAX profits at the overseas duty-free operator owned by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) last year plummeted by 87% to €3 million.

THE Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) yesterday confirmed that Shannon Airport’s head of finance and corporate affairs, Mary Considine is to assume the role of airport director next month.

THE board at Cork Airport has had a turbulent few years battling against resignations and controversy.

DEPUTY Michael Noonan is completely wrong to argue that the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) is hostile to the fortunes of Shannon airport (‘Noonan lets fly at Tánaiste over mid-west inaction,’ Irish Examiner, February 2).

GOVERNMENT departments have been told they should prepare unused properties for sale immediately and surrender them to the Office of Public Works.

Allied Irish Bank has appointed former tánaiste Dick Spring and the chief executive of the Dublin Airport Authority Declan Collier as non-executive directors.

INFLUENTIAL Irish American Loretta Brennan-Glucksman has resigned from the board of Cork Airport.

Ryanair’s announcement that it is dropping two of its Cork routes to Britain has come as a blow not just to Cork Airport but also to the Munster region as a whole, because it will inevitably impact on tourism and thus jobs in the tourist sector.

FORMER aircraft leasing company GPA high-flyer Colm Barrington is to be the new chairman of Aer Lingus, the company announced yesterday.

FULL independence for Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports has been taxiing on the runway for so long many observers now fear the plan will never be given clearance for takeoff.

CORK Airport Authority (CAA) will officially discuss at the start of next week the €100 million bill it would face under the findings of the Cassells report on the break-up of Aer Rianta.

Industrial relations troubleshooter Peter Cassells has presented his report on the long-running row over who will shoulder Cork Airport’s €220m debt.

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has reportedly threatened to reconsider the Government's decision to allow Ireland's main state airports operate as independent competing entities.

BUSINESS plans to establish Cork and Shannon as independent airports have finally been sent to the Government for approval, it was confirmed yesterday.

AER RIANTA has won one of its largest ever contracts which will see it develop operations at a new terminal at Moscow Airport. The deal will generate sales of more than €1 billion over seven years.

Aer Rianta International have been awarded a seven-year retail contract with JSC Terminal, the authority responsible for developing the new Terminal 3 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

OUR airports have been in a state of transition — if not turmoil — for more than four years.

Imtech NV, a Dutch technical services provider, is to buy the Irish firm Suir Engineering Ltd.

FIANNA FÁIL number-crunchers do not believe Cork Airport’s debt will cost the party seats, and now say the party it will not cancel the debt before polling day.

CORK Airport can only afford to carry a maximum debt of €60 million, according to a new report.

A campaign has been launched to get Ireland's support to protect Europe's public services.

PLUMMETING sales at airport duty free shops will be on the agenda for the EU-US summit next month, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has promised.

The Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey has said semi-state companies legally avoiding paying millions of euro in corporation tax by moving funds to Dutch holding companies is a matter for the Revenue Commissioners.

Three semi-state companies have been legally able to avoid paying corporation tax here by moving more than €90m through the accounts of Dutch holding companies.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has said the Government will work to address the concerns of the Cork Airport over the debts relating to its new terminal building.

I AM appalled but not surprised that the Government has broken all promises in relation to the creation of a debt-free Cork Airport and is now unfairly demanding that the airport pays a potentially crippling €100m towards the cost of its development.

THE news that Cork Airport Authority (CAA) is to be saddled with a €100 million debt in exchange for freedom from control by the Dublin Airport Authority (Irish Examiner, February 20) flies in the face of the Government’s own plans for regional development.

YOUR editorial on the Government’s somersault on Cork Airport funding was very much to the point, but did not go far enough (Irish Examiner, February 21).

A GOVERNMENT Senator launched a scathing attack on the Government yesterday over the controversial Cork Airport debt issue.

IF Government commitment to balanced regional development has any meaning, it is crucial to counter-balance Dublin’s sprawl, now skewing development across the country.

FINANCE Minister Brian Cowen yesterday defended his backing for a commercial enterprise near Dublin Airport headed by a businessman from a Fianna Fáil family.

I RECENTLY used the new terminal at Cork International airport and this is a brief summary of our experience. In isolation, most of the following would have been acceptable.

IRISH TIMES editor Geraldine Kennedy and the paper’s public affairs correspondent Colm Keena are to appear before the Mahon Planning Tribunal this morning over their leak of payments to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

FORMER supermarket boss Ben Dunne — who admitted giving the late Taoiseach Charles J Haughey up to £2 million — is due to give evidence to the Mahon Tribunal now investigating the rezoning of land near Dublin Airport.

RYANAIR passengers using Irish airports face some of the highest levels of “hidden charges” imposed by the airline anywhere in Europe.

SEVENTY years ago Aer Lingus Teoranta was registered as an airline, on May 22, 1936.

SHANNON AIRPORT plans to lease out its aviation fuel farm to a private operator.

A Galway businessman is reportedly set to buy three of the best-known hotels in the Great Southern Hotels Group.

Up to 150 protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin today to demand an end to the attacks on Lebanon.