The Hindu Business Line : Lean air traffic, angry investors… gloom is evident

Rome, Nov. 4 Evidence that Europe is in the midst of a huge economic downturn can be seen while travelling to Italy from Chennai. The second segment of the Jet Airways premier class is totally empty, while the first part has a few empty seats even though economy is pretty full.

Things have visibly quietened down at the once bustling Brussels airport, one of the European hubs. This airport boasts of the world’s largest chocolate shop – Belgian chocolates can win the world’s best chocolate award from chocolate connoisseurs – and is said to sell a whopping 800 tonnes of chocolates a year, but the plethora of duty-free shops are almost totally deserted.

The business sections of European dailies are full of gloomy stories of the global financial meltdown.

The European Voice has a cover story on how Europe must soon move from the ‘panic’ to the ‘triumph’ mode and its leaders must assume a leadership role in “ushering in a new financial world order”. Pictures of Gordon Brown and Sarkozy accompany the article.

But the same newspaper also reports how the credit crunch is now spreading its tentacles to eastern Europe and Hungary is now in the midst of a storm, seeking a bailout from the IMF.

The second lead in the Daily Telegraph of the UK is how Barclay investors are angry at the institution turning to West Asian investors such as the royal families of Abu Dhabi and Qatar to get financial succour instead of turning to the British Government.

Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the owner of Manchester City Football Club and a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, is picking up a 16 per cent stake in Barclays by investing £3.5 billion, and the Qatar Investment Authority, the investment vehicle of the Qatar royal family, is also putting in a huge chunk to buy Barclay shares in a “sweet deal” that is angering British investors in the bank.

Job cuts – British Telecom is laying off thousands – and holidays going for a song are other prominent stories. But where are the holiday takers, you wonder.

Two of my colleagues, also coming to the media tour organised by the International Olive Council in Italy, have transited through Amsterdam via KLM, and “at first wondered if something had happened to empty the Amsterdam airport”. In contrast, the Chennai airport was a picture of crowd and chaos.

The security area in the international terminal has unprecedented queues and every flight leaving in the early hours of Sunday is delayed by at least 30 to 45 minutes. The security officer, who is exhausted, says the rush started prior to Diwali and still continues — “I don’t know from where people find so much money to travel like this”, he fumes.

Max, a fellow traveller on the Brussels Air flight to Rome, lives in Hawaii, but his family was originally from the Philippines. He is a top notch telecom executive and has lost $250,000 in the equity market. “It was too difficult for me to watch, so I sold everything and exited. So no more daily torture for me, now,” he consoles himself!

More Stories on : Trends | Financial Markets | Rasheeda Bhagat

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Lean air traffic, angry investors… gloom is evident