John Lewis is hanging on for a “testing Christmas” as sales have already shown a near 10% drop on the same time last year. Staff will no doubt need a bit of stamina to get through this time, so its good to report that the John Lewis Partnership is launching a scheme to get all 69,000 employees more fit by getting involved in sport. The programme, called Partners in Sport, will run up to the 2012 Olympics and give staff the opportunity to train to be sports coaches. The John Lewis Partnership will also provide practical support to staff who wish to compete at national level or above in their chosen sport. This includes nutritional information, travel, accommodation and equipment. The firm already provides employees with £250 each year to develop a sport of their choice.

Ryanair are to raise the bar on the arguments over the contribution of the airline industry to global warming; not only can you zip around Europe for the price of a sneeze, but soon you’ll be able to fly to the USA for just 10 euros. While the economy tickets will start this cheap, the business class area of the planes are going to be very expensive. The firm is using the credit crunch to elbow in front of the competition: they have plans to buy over 50 extra aircraft, and continue to undercut more expensive rivals. The firm is  predicted to make a profit for the full year as long as oil stays below $70 a barrel. There have been other airlines offering cheap flights across the Atlantic: Laker Airlines started that in the 1970s (and went bust) and Canadian carrier Zoom was doing it until this summer (er…when it went bust.)

EasyJet plans to recruit 750 members of cabin crew over the next year and will launch a new e-learning induction programme for all new entrants. New joiners will have to complete online modules before they can progress to EasyJet’s training academy to complete their induction. Its hoped that by doing certain parts of their training online, more time can be dedicated to face-to-face group discussion and collaboration. The recruiting of 750 crew is a huge increase on previous years. Up, up and away!