Division boss for Woolworths’ supermarkets, Greg Foran, said the grocer intended to redesign the layout of its shop to give customers more of a feel that they are shopping in a market. This will be done by integrating the fresh food elements of the store such as the deli, the meat counters and the bakery.

Foran also said Woolworths would be doing away with its ship-and-display crates. The original idea behind stacking foods in their original shipping crates was that it reduced the amount of people who handled the food before it reached the customer. However, Foran explained that shipping crates are not attractive, and because they were not handled by shelf stackers there was no process by which damaged food could be weeded out.

Woolworths’ fresh food sections will be redesigned to have a number of wooden stands which give the impression they are full, even when there is only a small amount of produce on display. According to Foran this will mean less food will get damaged.

The grocer also intends to reduce the amount of product lines appearing on its shelves by five per cent. Foran said this will not mean less choice for customers in terms of stock but a reduction in the different packet sizes certain products are sold in.

One of the names being touted is Australian flag-carrier Qantas. At the end of 2008, talks between the two airlines about a possible merger broke down because of a disagreement over relative valuations. However BA’s boss, Willie Walsh, has admitted that if Qantas were keen, he would be willing to reopen discussions.

Walsh said all the preliminary work had already been done and if Qantas wished to come back to the table, something interesting could come from it. Walsh admitted that Alan Joyce, Qantas’ chief executive, might not want to consider a merger just at the moment, but added that the situation might change in the future.

Stephen Furlong of Davy Stockbrokers said Qantas is busy restructuring itself at the moment, but that he would be shocked if the airline hadn’t made it on to BA’s list. He added that a partnership would be the perfect way for both airlines to start opening up the lucrative Asian market.

Qantas said it has not been involved in any recent discussions with BA or Iberia about a merger, but that it continued to have a healthy relationship with both.

Experts say it is not surprising that Qantas would be looking to move operations from Buenos Aires to a major Brazilian city. Sao Paulo has two airports, both of which deal with twice the amount of traffic each year than those of the Argentine capital.

As of next year there will also be increased competition on the Buenos Aires-Australia routes as Aerolinius Argentinas, the country’s flag carrier, commences direct flights to Sydney. An important consideration for Qantas is the distance between Australia and Brazil. The route would only be accessible to larger, four-engine aircraft, such as a Boeing 747-400, which would have to keep its weight down by restricting the amount of payload being transported.

Some experts feel it is not the right time for Qantas to start flying a new international route. Brazil’s economy may well be booming at present, but the global economy is still fragile.

With talk of a double-dip recession, many feel Qantas would do better to strengthen its alliance with Chile’s LAN if it wants more access to South American destinations. Qantas currently has a code share agreement with LAN between Sydney and Santiago.

Emirates’ founding managing director, Sir Maurice Flanagan, said that arrival of the A380 at Manchester was particularly poignant for him because he was brought up as a child not too far away. He added that Manchester was the first airport Emirates had ever flow from in Europe and the arrival of the superjumbo proved just how far Emirates had come.

Flanagan went on to say that he believed people were realising that the A380 was going to be the passenger jet of the future. He claims that, since announcing an order for an additional 32 aircraft at the Berlin Air Show, Emirates is being invited by airports around the globe to fly services to them.

Andrew Cornish, Manchester Airport’s managing director said having the Airbus A380 land at his airport was like realising a dream. An airport spokesman said when it left, two hours after landing, everything felt a bit quiet. However, it was good to know that it would be returning tomorrow, he added.

Singapore Airlines was the first to start operating the A380 in 2007. In spring 2008 the airline was flying the jumbo to and from Heathrow. Emirates is now the largest operator of A380s with a fleet of 12.

Engine No 4 on Flight 74 had last been checked on 8 July. According to Qantas, this meant that it was not yet due for another inspection. Qantas maintains that it has conformed to all airline safety rules saying the RB211 engines did not have to undergo any checks until their next scheduled examination dates.

Qantas has flown a replacement engine to San Francisco along with a team of mechanics. They will investigate the causes of the explosion and will have to submit a report to US safety authorities.

All 212 passengers on board the aircraft made it safely onto the ground after the pilot shut off the engine and dumped fuel over the water. Describing the experience a number of passengers say they saw flames coming from the engine soon after feeling a thump.

The Qantas crew has been praised for remaining calm and professional throughout the ordeal and on landing the pilot was given a cheer and a round of applause. Most passengers remained calm throughout the incident and one man even described the landing as one of the smoothest he had ever experienced, even though they were an engine short.

Simon Rushton, a Sydney based spokesman for Qantas, described how crew began to notice excessive vibration in one of the Boeing 747-400’s engines. The decision was made to shut the engine down and begin dumping fuel into the Pacific. The captain then asked for priority permission to return to San Francisco. There were no injuries caused by the incident and the aircraft managed to manoeuvre to the terminal so passengers could disembark.

Mr Rushton confirmed that the damage to the engine is serious enough to require its replacement. He said Qantas engineers were already on thier way to San Francisco with a new engine. The team will also conduct a thorough investigation into what caused the engine to fail.

Passengers who were on the flight describe how they heard strange noises as well as a great deal of vibration. Neil Duffy, speaking to KTVU-TV, described how the captain explained that one of the jet’s engines had been damaged, but that there was little to worry about as the aircraft was still safe. Mr Duffy added that everyone cheered after landing safely.

Qantas said it would be transferring all those disrupted by the incident to Los Angeles where they will be able to board flights bound for Australia later this evening.

Delta will now have to wait for permission from the US Department of Transportation and the European Commission before it can grab the slots and start flying a proposed two flights daily across the Atlantic to Boston and Miami.

On both the proposed transatlantic routes Delta will find itself in direct competition with Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and American. Both destinations are extremely popular. Boston is important as a business centre as well as being the New England gateway. Miami is used to seeing year-round customers. It is especially popular with those travelling from the UK to join cruise liners headed for the Caribbean.

Delta used to run its operations out of London Gatwick but was able to move to Heathrow because of the Open Skies deal signed by the EU and the US in March 2008. If it manages to get the blessing of the regulators it will be running 10 services a day out of Heathrow.

According to Delta’s executive vice president of network planning, Glenn Hauenstein, the new services will provide passengers with more choice and more competition on some very popular routes.

He went on to offer his congratulations to John Borghetti, Virgin Blue’s chief executive, and James Hogan, chief executive at Etihad. He added that significant initiatives, like the tie up between Virgin and Etihad, showed what could be done when airlines worked closely with airports.

When V Australia begins its services between Sydney and Abu Dhabi at the beginning of next year, it will be the first ever Australian airline to operate on the route. Mr Balding said the extra seats provided between Australia and the Middle East through the deal would be welcomed not only by tourists but also business travellers who will now be able to use the gateway of Abu Dhabi to access the rest of the Middle East and Europe.

At the beginning of October, codesharing between Etihad and Virgin Blue will open up Virgin’s South Pacific and Australian networks to the United Arab Emirates flag-carrier. Virgin will find itself plugged into an intercontinental network of 65 destinations through Abu Dhabi.

In the longer term, the deal will give Virgin access to a wide number of European cities as well as Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

Although the figures are encouraging there is still concern that weak consumer spending may mean they are not sustainable. Virgin Blue said the year end results were not necessarily an indication that conditions were improving consistently across-the-board.

Air New Zealand echoed Virgin’s concerns saying demand for air travel was still weak while the world’s economic recovery remained far from certain. Much of the airline’s fourfold increase in profits was down to cost cutting measures which have been put into place over the last 12 months. The flag carrier has been able to reduce its operating costs by around NZ$600 million. It has also managed to save a considerable amount on fuel.

According to the International Air Transport Association (Iata) the number of travellers making international flights was up by 9.2 per cent in July compared to the same month last year.

Giovanni Bisignani, Iata’s director general, said the recovery of the airline sector had been more rapid than initially expected but sustaining that recovery would depend very much on the health of the world’s economy.

Virgin Blue said the deal would unlock a global network for passengers and hoped that being able to fly to 65 destinations in the Middle East and Europe from Abu Dhabi would be attractive to business travellers.

The decision to focus on the Middle East means V Australia will be withdrawing from other loss-making destinations including South Africa. Pacific Blue is to replace V Australia on its Phuket, Thailand service. It was recently announced that Pacific Blue will take over from V Australia on flights to Fiji and that Virgin Blue would cease all services in New Zealand.

The Etihad tie-up means that an agreement the Middle Eastern carrier made at the beginning of last year with Qantas is over. David Epstein, spokesman for the flag carrier, said Etihad had approached Qantas with similar proposals as the ones Virgin Blue had signed up to, but that the airline had decided to reject them.

As well as the new deal with Etihad, Virgin Blue is awaiting regulator approval for a possible tie-up with Delta Airlines in the US which would mean access to Los Angeles across the Pacific.