Mrs Hall, who had been visiting her daughter in London, said she and her husband had paid pounds 50 each for their return flight to Aberdeen.. All of the other airlines, including Monarch and Britannia, accepted their invitation.”The new terminal, which houses 60 check-in desks as well as shops, bars and restaurants, will increase capacity to five million passengers a year.During her tour of the terminal building yesterday, the Queen met two easyJet passengers, Ian and Eleanor Hall from Aberdeenshire, and watched them being checked in for their flight. The new management insisted that easyJet move to their new terminal and have raised the fees that they are charging to the airline.”Laura Goodes, a spokeswoman for the airport, denied that easyJet’s costs had increased. “We are disappointed that easyJet staff have not had the opportunity to participate in what is a great day. “During the term of the contract, the airport was privatised and the new shareholder is Barclays Bank. Security staff told him to take it down.Mr Rothnie claimed easyJet had a contract with the airport guaranteeing access to the old terminal for a set fee.

THE DISCOUNT airline easyJet boycotted the opening ceremony of a passenger terminal at Luton airport yesterday, claiming the pounds 40m facility willlead to an increase in fares. The company chairman and owner, Stelios Haji-Iannou, was in Paris on business despite being invited to attend the ceremony and other company representatives also stayed away.
James Rothnie, easyGroup’s director of corporate affairs, said the airline planned to sue Luton airport for the damages incurred as a result of an alleged breach of contract over terminal use.He said: “EasyJet will not attend the official opening of the new terminal because the airport is in breach of its contract with the airline.”No disrespect is meant to the Queen, who is officially opening the terminal, but easyJet considers the new terminal an expensive mistake.”Therefore, easyJet feels it is inappropriate to participate in a celebration of something that could jeopardise the long-term survival of both the airline and consequently the airport itself, with disastrous consequences for local employment.”Mr Rothnie had earlier erected a 40 metre banner at the entrance to the airport which read: “Barclays, pay for your own mistake”. The remaining five million customers, who pay by direct debit, will receive no price cut as there is already fierce competition for their custom, and they currently receive 10 per cent discounts on British Gas’s standard tariff.The price control will take effect next April but will only last one year, after which the plan is to leave pricing entirely to the market. More than a quarter of British Gas customers have switched to other suppliers in the last month, and the company is losing business at the rate of 32,000 households a week.Business, page 21Outlook, page 23. But the industry group, Water UK, described it as a “tough settlement” and said some individual companies were likely to appeal to the Competition Commission.The reduction in water bills is part of a pounds 1.2bn package of measures aimed at saving customers money and improving the quality of drinking water and beaches over the next five years.Mr Byatt said that the bill reductions, coupled with an increased pounds 9.4bn programme of environmental spending, was worth an average of pounds 60 for 20 million households.The actual size of the reductions next April will vary from region to region, with customers of Northumbrian Water enjoying the biggest cut in bills, of about pounds 46.The only water supplier whose bills will rise over the next five years is Folkestone and Dover, where water charges will rise by pounds 9 to pounds 126 in 2004-05, but sewage charges will come down.Lord De Ramsey, chairman of the Environment Agency, said the increased environmental programme would put an end to raw sewage on beaches, cleanse rivers and give better protection to rivers and wetlands.Pete Bowler of the pressure group Water Watch, said: “Mr Byatt is only giving back to customers a small part of the money they have been overcharged in the last five to ten years.”But Pamela Taylor, chief executive of Water UK, accused the regulator of a “short-term fix” which could put public health and the environment at risk.The reduction in gas bills will only apply to those British Gas customers on standard, pre-payment or prompt-payment tariffs – about two-thirds of its 15 million customers. Meanwhile Callum McCarthy, the energy regulator, proposed a pounds 14 cut in gas bills for 10 million British Gas customers.
Consumer groups said that even after water charges are reduced, customers will still be left paying too much. Ian Byatt, the head of Ofwat, confirmed that domestic water charges would come down by 12 per cent from next April – a saving of pounds 30 for the average household.

GAS AND water bills will decrease next year for millions of households, in new price controls announced yesterday by industry regulators. You do not understand someone like me involved in a major company, employing thousands of people … you want me to interfere in all my secretarial business?”The case continues.. Get on with the subject and don’t waste the time of everybody.”Mr Browne asked: “Are you suggesting that Mr Hamilton was so greedy that on two occasions a mere four days apart he turned up at Harrods asking for cash and was given gift vouchers?” Mr Fayed said that, indeed, was right,Mr Browne: “You have been able to produce message pads going back to 1985, diaries going back to 1985, but it’s right, isn’t it, that there was not a single document produced by you which proves that money was paid to Mr Hamilton?”Mr Fayed: “It is unfair. You have nothing to defend your client except attacking me unfairly, unlogically because you don’t understand what type of person I am, what culture I come from, what commitments I have, how many people I employ …”Mr Browne: “Are you saying you distribute this cash …”Mr Fayed interrupted: “I am not listening because you are talking garbage.”Mr Browne: “Are you saying you distribute this cash largesse of over pounds 100,000 a week among your employees, because, as I understand it, you told us that you do not pay cash to your employees to top up their wages.”Mr Fayed: “You have no basis for all this rubbish You are just trying to ridicule me I have a lot of commitments, big family, homes everywhere I need the cash and it’s none of your business My personal cash is my personal life It’s none of your bloody business It’s my business. What is the question? It’s not your business.”Mr Browne: “I suggest you used these enormous sums to lubricate your way through business, finding a way of easing your relations with other people by paying them sums of cash which you know they will not be accounting for for tax.”Mr Fayed: “What you are saying is absolute rubbish You have no proof. Mr Browne then asked Mr Fayed: “What on earth are you doing with weekly cash withdrawals of between pounds 60,000 and pounds 120,000?” Mr Fayed said: “And this is your business? It is my business You have bank statements.