But a spokesman for British Midland which wants to start services to four US destinations next year said: There has to be slot

But a spokesman for British Midland, which wants to start services to four US destinations next year, said: “There has to be slot divestment. It is impossible for the deal to go ahead without that.”The current air services agreement between the US and UK, Bermuda 2, allows only four airlines to fly direct from Heathrow and restricts the number of American cities which may be served to just 12.. The level of policyholders leaving stricken Equitable Life’s with-profits fund could be accelerating to the point where the same amount of money is wiped from the fund’s value in one month as was lost in the first six months of this year. The level of policyholders leaving stricken Equitable Life’s with-profits fund could be accelerating to the point where the same amount of money is wiped from the fund’s value in one month as was lost in the first six months of this year.
Equitable’s fund may be reduced by £2bn in the month after 16 July, when it announced it would cut policy values by up to 16 per cent.This was the prediction of Stuart Bayliss, director of Annuity Direct and one of the closest industry figures to Equitable’s predicament.If the with-profits fund does lose £2bn of business within a month, this would be the same sum as was taken out of the fund between January and June. Mr Bayliss said: “Looking at the volumes of business we are advising on, I feel very safe in saying that it will be the same level applying to leave the fund in July as in the first six months.”The revelation that Equitable has lost £2bn so far this year – or 8 per cent of the fund’s total value – itself shocked the market. The possibility that the same substantial chunk will go from mid-July to mid-August will prompt renewed fears about the viability of the fund continuing to operate.Charles Thomson, chief executive of Equitable, yesterday emphasised that the fund was solvent.

Some independent advisers say that last month’s 16 per cent cut means that Equitable has boosted its reserves more than most other life offices have been able to do in recent tough stock market conditions.Equitable said that the £2bn cashed in the first half of the year was divided between those surrendering early and those whose polices were maturing according to planned dates.. House prices rises are set to slow down, but the market will remain buoyant despite warnings that the property boom is unsustainable, the Halifax Building Society said yesterday. House prices rises are set to slow down, but the market will remain buoyant despite warnings that the property boom is unsustainable, the Halifax Building Society said yesterday.
Britain’s biggest mortgage lender said house prices rose by 0.7 per cent in July, the lowest increase since January, putting the average cost of a home in Britain at £92,718.The figures, which leave house-price inflation unaltered at 9.6 per cent, followed a warning from the Nationwide Building Society that the rate of increase was unsustainable. The Nationwide’s figures recorded a 1.1 per cent increase in July and annual house-price inflation of 10.9 per cent.Yesterday, Martin Ellis, economist for the Halifax, said that although the rate of increase was likely to slow as the manufacturing recession spread to the rest of the economy, there was no reason to think prices would fall.”Slower economic growth – apparent in the decline in gross domestic product growth in the second quarter – is likely to curb housing demand and cause house-price inflation to ease over the coming months,” he said.But he added: “Consumer sentiment has remained high, notwithstanding the global economic slowdown, the recession in the UK manufacturing sector, and the fall in share prices.

The continuing fall in unemployment and the record high level of unfilled job vacancies, have been key factors underpinning this confidence so far this year.”Mr Ellis said this week’s 0.25 per cent cut in interest rates was unlikely to have an effect on the housing market, since it was introduced to counter economic slowdown that would, itself, restrict housing demand.The Halifax said prices in most parts of the country were increasing at between 4 to 6 per cent a year. Only London, with a 17 per cent increase, and the South East, with an 11 per cent, had very big rises. The society predicts prices will increase by 7 per cent this year.. There was a powerful sense of d? vu in the air yesterday after British Airways and American Airlines resurrected their plans for a transatlantic tie-up. Seasoned plane-spotters remember their previous failed attempt five years ago to merge their services between Heathrow and the US. It crashed on take-off after the regulators lobbed a very large obstacle on the runway but not before the then BA chief executive Bob Ayling and Bob Crandall of American had spent two years banging their heads against a brick wall in Brussels and Washington.