Alicante Takes Off

Aer Lingus is to fly three times weekly from Belfast International to the Spanish destination, Alicante, from March. However, suspended flights to Paris and Munich will remain off their Belfast schedules, but a fourth daily flight to London Heathrow is planned.

Derry City Bosses Resign

The Chairman of Derry City Football Club has resigned along with three of its board members. Pat McDaid said he would be stepping down along with Joe W Doherty, Peter Leonard and Francis Houston. Mr McDaid said his relationship with the FAI had now "reached the point of no return". The club's players also released a statement on Tuesday night which distanced them from what they described as the Derry board's "wrongdoing". City were expelled from the League of Ireland after the FAI said they broke regulations by holding secondary, unofficial contracts with players.

Jobs Boost On The Line

Firstsource, a leading business process outsourcing company, headquartered in India, and which already employs over 700 people at a site on Northland Road in Londonderry and a further 500 in Belfast, now plans to begin recruitment for an additional 150 people who will be based at Spencer Road, Derry, offering a variety of quality posts from customer support advisors to operations management.

Halifax Workers To Be Cut

Around 120 jobs are under threat at Halifax's mortgage operations in Belfast as part of a fresh wave of cuts announced by the Lloyds Banking Group. Lloyds yesterday said it plans to axe a massive 5,000 jobs from its group operations, insurance and retail divisions by the end of the year to reduce costs. After the release of contractors, temporary staff and offshore personnel it said there would be a net reduction of about 2,600 permanent jobs across the UK. Halifax said it anticipates that 120 roles at its offices in the Gasworks would be affected, but stressed that the majority would be redeployed to other roles in the Belfast area.

Larne Expands Stateside

A surge in US sales has led Intermatic Manufacturing, the Larne-based specialist in vending systems, to set up an office in Denver, Colorado and to sign up with a manufacturer in Chicago. Intermatic, the developer of a unique fresh candy floss vending system has used Invest Northern Ireland trade missions to develop its exports in the US including the most recent mission to the huge leisure market in California. David Hawthorne, Intermatic's Managing Director, said the company had grown its exports to 95% of sales over the past two years: "Approaches for the system from operators of entertainment centres including several with vast networks, made it essential that we had an office there and an agreement with an in-market manufacturer," he said, noting the office is in Denver because of its central location and excellent communications links throughout the US and into Canada.

Martin Flies North

The Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin will hold a series of meetings in Belfast today. He is in the city for a gathering of the North-South Ministerial Council after last week urging the DUP to complete the devolution of policing and justice powers. Prior to his trip he said he was looking forward to discussions in Belfast, which include a North South Ministerial Council meeting hosted by the First and Deputy First Ministers, which he described as "an opportunity to review recent developments in Northern Ireland". He also said he would meet members of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, visit the headquarters of the NI Policing Board and make a number of courtesy calls on public figures. He again called for full devolution of policing and justice powers.

(BMcC/KMcA)