Business Diary: Ryanair stuck at bottom of table

Ryanair snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. On the very day that news emerged of the airline's success in forcing those behind the "I hate Ryanair" website to take it down, online consultancy Kaizo published its latestsurvey of consumer perceptions of the airline industry. And guess which airline comes last in the reputation stakes, by quite some distance? It seems that plenty of people still hate Ryanair, even if they no longer have a website on which to vent their fury.

Sour grapes from BAA?

We don't want you to think that BAA are a bunch of badlosers, but the airport group's reaction to its defeat in the Court of Appeal yesterday over its break-up was just a little on the tetchy side. It forwarded us a copy of the Competition Commission's press release on the verdict, with a sarcastic note pointing out that the regulator had wrongly spelt competition as "competion" in its headline. Come on chaps, stiff upper lip.

Unite beats Lloyds to it again

Is Lloyds Banking Grouptrying to save yet more money by outsourcing its mediarelations work to Unite, the union, which makes a habit of breaking news of the banks' job cuts (and those of its rivals)? As usual, Unite was first to announce the latest redundancies at Lloyds yesterday, and did so more candidly than the bank. Its press release, entitled "Lloyds cuts 4,500 job with work going abroad" was followed a minute later by the bank's own announcement, "Lloyds Banking Group announces changes in group IT and operations".

Potatoes back in their skins

Walkers Crisps says proudly that it is close to working out how to make crisp packets out of potato peelings, an innovation it regards as a recycling triumph. So, let's get this straight – Walkers' business consists of skinning potatoes, slicing and cooking them, and then packaging them back up in a bag made out of their original jackets to sell. Surely there's some scope for efficiency savings here somewhere?

businessdiary@independent.co.uk