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The airline industry believes that the high spending culture of the 80's will not return to business air travel, yet there is no consensus between company executives about how to adapt to the new climate. Traditional airlines such as British Airways, American Airlines and Swiss Air are raising their standards according to the theory that customers most value space, old style entrepreneurs such as KLM and British Midland are competing on price and radicals such as Virgin Atlantic and Continental are offering new products.

Foreign exchange markets have been volatile for the last eighteen months but are now in a temporary calm. The outlook is good for the dollar, yen and sterling but the D-mark is losing ground. The City of London appears to be holding its leading position in international finance. Currency trading is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Progress towards economic and monetary union in Europe is slow. Wider use of the Ecu as Europe's single currency seems a distant prospect.

There is a new fad sweeping Paris this holiday season - home cooking. It might be down to a belt-tightening mood brought about by high unemployment, low growth and the [...]

Interview Luc Vigneron Chief executive, Thales Chief insists his scheme will deliver amid criticism from investors, writes Peggy Hollinger Luc Vigneron has been chief executive of Thales for 18 months, [...]

ELECTRICITY GDF Suez has opened a new front in the rivalry that has long riven France's nuclear industry. It is publicly opposing the government's proposal that state-controlled utility EDF increase [...]

ELECTRICITY Two new reactors planned next year EDF has put a price tag of more than [pounds sterling]9bn ($13.9bn) on the cost of building two new generation nuclear reactors in [...]

technology hardware France's state-backed strategic investment fund is to buy Areva's 11 per cent stake in computer group STMicroelectronics for [euro]695m ($920m), bringing the funds raised by the nuclear group [...]

support services Chiefs hail tie-up as more than financial Thierry Breton and Peter Loscher were in no mood to be falsely modest on Wednesday. The chief executives of France's Atos [...]

support services Siemens is set to take an initial 15 per cent stake and a board seat in Atos Origin, the IT services group run by a former French finance [...]

ELECTRICITY Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund will be able to sell its 4.8 per cent stake in the French nuclear group Areva back to the government if Paris fails to bring [...]

Another top Airbus executive has been placed under formal investigation in France for alleged insider dealing just a year after being cleared by the stock market regulator. John Leahy, commercial [...]

electricity The French government is aiming to bring Areva to a full market listing before June next year in a U-turn on the future of the strategic and politically sensitive [...]

industrial transport Pressure on SNCF over Siemens order Directors of Eurostar appointed by France's state railway resigned last week before the company signed an order for German-built trains, amid an [...]

France's competition authority has given the country's big grocers one year to abolish practices that hold franchise operators hostage to punishing contracts and bar competitors from setting up shop on [...]

General financial Nestle among interested bidders France's state-backed strategic investment fund is hoping to become a shareholder in Yoplait, as the pre-auction race for a 50 per cent stake in [...]

personal goods Legal action against heiress withdrawn Liliane Bettencourt, the L'Oreal heiress, and her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, have declared a truce in the feud that for more than a year [...]

aerospace & DEFENCE Continental Airlines faces further potentially damaging legal action after a French court found it guilty of involuntary homicide in the Concorde crash that left 113 people dead [...]

Electricity Move marks group's German withdrawal EDF insisted its international strategy was unchanged after announcing its withdrawal from Germany through the surprise sale of its politically controversial stake in the [...]

personal goods Liliane Bettencourt, the L'Oreal heiress, and her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, have declared a truce in the family feud that laid bare the secrets of one of France's richest [...]

Support services De La Rue, the crisis-hit banknote printing company, has received a take-over approach from Oberthur Technologies, the French secure printing group, according to people with knowledge of the [...]

De La Rue, the crisis-hit banknote printing company, has received a takeover approach from Oberthur Technologies, the French secure printing group, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The [...]

aerospace Accused deny part in deaths of 113 A French court will today deliver its judgment in the trial over the crash 10 years ago of an Air France Concorde [...]

electricity News analysis A storm of passions has engulfed the country's nuclear ambitions, writes Peggy Hollinger The farces for which France is famous are more commonly seen on the stage [...]

industrial engineering Alstom, the French turbine group, has been invited to consider taking a stake in Areva as part of the stateowned nuclear group's longawaited capital increase. The French government [...]

A secret hoard of 271 unknown works by Pablo Picasso has been uncovered in the garage of a retired electrician and his wife, who say they were gifts for jobs [...]

electricity Qatar's prime minister met French president Nicolas Sarkozy this week in an attempt to resolve the stalemate over a capital increase for Areva, the French state-owned nuclear group. Sheikh [...]

AEROSPACE & DEFENCE Jean-Paul Herteman, an engineer by training, is known to be a cautious man. So perhaps the chief executive of Safran, the French aero-engine and defence group, should [...]

Food producers The joint owners of Yoplait have rejected a [euro]1.4bn ($1.9bn) takeover bid for one of the world's best-known yoghurt brands from French private dairy company Lactalis. French private [...]

Aerospace French watchdog's deadline on Zodiac Safran will be forced to end the uncertainty over a bid for aerospace supplier Zodiac today after France's stock market regulator took the rare [...]

FOOD PRODUCERS The battle for one of the world's best known yoghurt brands has been launched in earnest after French private dairy company Lactalis tabled a bid of [euro]1.3bn ($1.8bn) [...]

Engine maker set to miss forecasts Qantas failure linked to single component Rolls-Royce has warned it will miss its profit forecasts because of the engine blow-out on a Qantas A380 [...]

AEROSPACE Impact of blow-out will be felt in 2011 Qantas fleet remains grounded Airbus warned that deliveries of the A380 could be delayed next year because of blow-out of an [...]

Mervyn King, Britain's central bank governor, may not have intended any irony in his praise for the French this week as they take over the presidency of the G20 from [...]

A rescue deal for the troubled A400M military transport project, one of Europe's largest collaborative defence programmes, moved a step closer to being resolved on Friday after the seven buyer [...]

Hu Jintao, the president of China, arrived in France on Thursday bearing the gift of $20bn in contracts and agreements between French and Chinese companies as he begins a three-day [...]

industrial transport Alstom has lodged a complaint with the European Commission as the French engineering group continues to try to overturn Eurostar's plans to order Velaro trains from Germany's Siemens. [...]

Interview Patrick Kron Alstom chief executive Reliance on mature European and US markets is a source of concern, writes Peggy Hollinger Patrick Kron, chief executive of France's Alstom, likes to [...]

France prepares to take G20 helm France and China will discuss potential reform of the international monetary system when President Hu Jintao arrives in Paris on a three-day state visit, [...]

Interview Jacques Aschenbroich Valeo chief executive Group raises profit expectations for the second time in seven months, says Peggy Hollinger A buoyant global car market is lifting the clouds that [...]

More than 1m in anti-reform march President takes hard line over violence French unions kept up the pressure on the government on Tuesday as more than 1m people came out [...]

News analysis The challenge for labour chiefs is to lower the national temperature without losing face, writes Peggy Hollinger Francois Chereque, leader of France's second biggest union, appealed for calm [...]

Energy Delays, cost over-runs foreign competition have dimmed French hopes for its new-generation nuclear reaction as a significant source of diplomatic and economc power, writes Peggy Hollinger I t was [...]

Tough response to street violence Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, vowed on Tuesday to take action against protesters blocking oil refineries and petrol depots as service stations around the country began [...]

Eve of national strike sees clashes Crisis centre set up as fuel depots hit Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, insisted that he would not give in to strikers as protests [...]

News analysis Italy's largest utility hopes flotation will buck sector's trend for weakness, write Rachel Sanderson , Sylvia Pfeifer and Peggy Hollinger Enel, Italy's largest utility, begins a roadshow on [...]

ELECTRICITY Constellation Energy of the US has rebuffed an attempt by France's EDF to resolve their dispute over a put option that would give the US group the right to [...]

News analysis The president has responded to a widespread public impression of injustice, writes Ben Hall As 3.5m French people took to the streets on Tuesday to protest against the [...]

The advertisement said it was 'the best job in the world' - become a crane operator at the port of Marseilles for [euro]4,000 ($5,600) a month, work 18 hours a [...]

News analysis The group may now have time to focus on more pressing issues, writes Peggy Hollinger EDF executives were virtually speechless with anger this weekend over what they described [...]