Prague  - State-owned Prague Airport plans to lay off some 160 employees, who account for 7 per cent of firm's workforce, before privatization planned for next year, it was announced Thursday.

In a bid to get in shape prior to the privatization, the company running the airport plans to start cutting the jobs in December. The airport will also cancel 90 vacant positions.

"It is clear that this step will raise the value of our company from the perspective of potential investors," airport's executive manager Miroslav Dvorak said in a statement.

The Czech center-right government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is either to sell or lease Ruzyne international airport, the second largest in Central Europe after Vienna.

Mumbai, Sept. 11 : The Chairman of Jet Airways, India’s premier private international airline, Naresh Goyal, was honoured with the ‘Business Person of the Year’ award at the prestigious UK Trade and Investment India Business Awards 2008, here on Tuesday.

This distinction was conferred upon Goyal for his significant contribution to India-UK business relations and for making the UK a strategic and pivotal destination in Jet Airways’ aggressive international expansion plans.

The chief minister of Karnataka, B S Yeddyurappa does not like the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA). The CM commented on the BIA on his return from US, after attending the world Kannada conference. The CM termed Bengaluru airport as low quality as compared to airports in the US.

He said that the state has received the airport after a wait of about 12 years but the authorities have failed to fulfill the aspirations of the people of the state. He confessed it after the celebrations of his 100 days in office on Tuesday.

Paris - European aerospace giant EADS has expanded its Power 8 cost-saving programme to counteract the weakness of the dollar against the euro, the French daily Le Monde reported Tuesday.

Unlike the original plan, which was created in response to losses suffered by the EADS subsidiary Airbus because of problems with its A 380 superjumbo, the new "Power
8 plus" programme involves the entire company and is to save it 1 billion euros (1.41 billion dollars) beginning in 2010.

Hong Kong - The head of Hong Kong's flagship airline Cathay Pacific Tuesday warned of the need for cost-cutting as the effects of high fuel prices and global recession take their toll on profits.

Tony Tyler, the airline's chief executive, indicated in a letter to staff that further cost-cutting measures may be necessary as the US and Britain may be "heading towards recession."

"These are extremely difficult times for the aviation industry and I'm sorry to say there doesn't appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel just yet.

Washington - Machinists at airplane giant Boeing went on strike Saturday after rejecting the company's proposed wage increases amid fears that their jobs could be shipped overseas.

The machinists, members of the International Machinists and Aerospace Workers, approved the strike action in a vote taken last Wednesday. But they delayed implementing the strike after the company reopened negotiations with union leaders, who gave Boeing until Friday evening to provide an "exceptional contract offer" under the guidance of a federal mediator.