UK regional low cost carrier Flybe returned to profit for the first time in four years, announcing a pre-tax profit of £6.6m for the financial year ending March 2005, compared with a £3.2m loss on the previous year.
The airline said that during the year, its passenger numbers had risen by 19.2% to 4m and it had started 29 new routes.
Flybe also announced it had appointed four new non-executive directors to its board amid speculation that it is planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) next year.
Jim French, chairman and ceo of Flybe, said the appointments "signal the next step in the evolution of Flybe to a major force in European regional aviation."
UK Hotels
UK hotels generated their highest average daily yield last year since 2001, according to consultants PKF's Hotel Britain 2006 guide.
The annual revenue of an average UK hotel room in 2005 was £21,870, a rise of 2.9% on 2004.
PKF said the new yield was largely driven by an increase of 3.7% in the average achieved room rate to £81.71.
The increase was achieved despite a small drop of 0.8% in occupancy.
PKF said its report was based on data from 671 hotels with 100,000 rooms
Robert Barnard, head of hotel consultancy services at PKF, said: “This year's survey reveals the fundamental strength and resilience of the UK hotel market.
"The first two months of 2006 are already showing positive growth in both London and the regions and, barring any environmental disasters, sickness epidemics or large-scale terrorist activity, we expect rooms yield growth to reach around 5% in the capital and 2% in the regions."
FL Group sells easyJet stake
FL Group which owns the Iceland national airline Icelandair, sold its 16.9% stake in UK low cost carrier easyJet.
It said it sold the 68m shares making a €140m profit on its investment.
Hannes Smarason, ceo of FL, said the group sold to realise its profit not because of a blocked take-over bid.
Mr Smarason said the profit would be used on further acquisitions.
The Group has already announced that it has marginally increased its holding in Finnair to 10.03%
easyJet shares rose by 70% as FL steadily increased its holding, fuelling speculation of a hostile take-over bid.
During the speculation, easyJet appointed Goldman Sachs as an adviser. The low cost carrier's shares fell after FL's sale.