Job cuts, job cuts and more job cuts are on the menu today.  Virgin Atlantic are cutting 600 jobs and Diageo are cutting 900 jobs.  I know it all looks bleak, especially after the release of figures showing the economy is still shrinking, but there is a ray of hope in the form of British Gas as they’ve announced that they’ll be creating 2,600 jobs. The job cuts by Virgin Atlantic are a result of reducing services such as daily the flights to Chicago and the twice daily flights to Hong Kong.  As businesses continue to tighten their belts, Virgin expects that travel will continue to suffer.  Diageo’s 900 job cuts in Scotland is an attempt to save an estimated £40million a year and will be spread over a several years. But good old British Gas are riding to the rescue in a rickety old blue van with the creation of 2,600 jobs to roll out the new Smart Meters by 2012.  I know you’re probably thinking: “I didn’t go to university to install gas meters”, but these jobs are spread across the whole company so you there won’t be an extra 2,600 blue British Gas vans on the road.

Its all very well BAA being told to sell 3 of their major airports, but what you should be really interested in is “whose going to buy them?” Here are the runners and riders, ripe for a CV in the post: Manchester Airports Group – majority owned by Manchester City Council, and said to have chased US and UK private equity cash to grow their empire; Changi Airports – the Singapore Government that owns nearly 50% of Virgin Atlantic; Fraport – German. ‘Nuff said. Hotchtief – Germany’s biggest construction firm with an eye on Gatwick to add to investments in Athens, Hamburg and Sydney airports; Global Infrastructure Partners – joint owned by Credit Suisse and General Electric they already own the majority of London’s City airport; and Macquarie – Australian bank that already owns Bristol airport. My work here is done. Over to you.

Providing it doesn’t US regulatory rules, British Airways has sealed an alliance with American Airlines that will allow the two carriers to fix fares, routes and schedules together. (Fare fixing – haven’t they just got in trouble for that?!) The alliance will also include Spain’s Iberia, which is merging with BA. Under the business agreement, the three airlines will co-operate on flights between the US, Mexico (where I’m going for Christmas) and Canada and the EU, Switzerland (where I’m never going back to) and Norway (where I owe someone a lot of money). Virgin Airlines has been quick to get the fidgets, pointing out that the alliance creates the world’s biggest airline, trumping the competition. And if you don’t have to compete, you can raise prices and that’s bad for you, me and us. Branson even wrote to Barack Obama and John McCain to warn them of the threat to the industry of the alliance. However BA would argue that it will reduce its cost structure, which it can then pass on, to a degree, to passengers – who should also enjoy easier journeys to more destinations.

Hoots Man! Scottish media company SMG has agreed a deal to sell Virgin Radio - for less than a quarter of the amount it bought the station for. SMG has sold Virgin to a group led by the Times of India (TIML) owner for £53.2m. In 2000, it paid £225m for Chris Evans’ Ginger Media Group, which included Virgin and a TV production company.  The sale means SMG is now free to concentrate on its TV channel STV, the ITV station in Central and Northern Scotland. Excited TIML boss AP Parigi said his company had a “proven track record of building powerhouse brands”. But the Indian buyers of Virgin may have to find a new name for the station. It will cost them an extra £8m if they decide to licence that brand name within the next two years.

London Heathrow: Pouring vinegar into the open sore that is BA’s Terminal 5, Virgin Atlantic claim that their new facilities at Terminal 3 have attracted thousands of new passengers (up 4% while business class passengers are up 10%). The lucrative business passengers have been leaving BA following the problems at T5 – and you can add to that Hugh Grant. The LA sex-pest was seen losing his rag this morning when his first class flight with BA from New York failed to bring his bags off the plane ahead of the hoi-polloi. He asked well-wishers, “What is going on with BA? What is the point of paying extra if you’re not going to get your luggage first?”