09/02/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Aaron Heslehurst and Ben Bland.

Will US airlines reach new heights under President Trump?

Their bosses land at the White House with concerns over fast-growing Gulf

Live from London, that's our top story on Thursday 9th February.

The President who used to run his own airline but failed -

says he wants the bosses of US carriers to "buy American

and hire American", but what can he to do help them?

The little blue bird will tell us how much money's it's making

or losing later today, but will Twitter get a big boost

And, as always, we'll bring you the latest on the markets

and tell you why today's driver is not a Trump on or

And we'll be getting a rather colourful inside track today.

The boss of one of the world's biggest paint firms ColArt will give

us the brush strokes on how he's trying to make the environment

And buyers pushed up shares in Snap Interactive,

a little-known US start-up, mistaking it for Snapchat.

So today we want to know, what's the most expensive

Let us know - just use the hashtag #BBCBizLive.

Then, if you use any more puns today, we are going to shoot you!

We start in Washington where the bosses of America's top

airlines and airports are due to meet President Trump

There are some major issues on the table that could affect

As we know from his inauguration speech,

Mr Trump said he would follow two simple rules - "Buy American

That could mean a major boost for plane-maker Boeing,

if he leans on US airlines to buy from them.

European rival Airbus also operates factories in the US

and buys billions of dollars worth of US components like engines.

Airbus claims to support 245,000 US jobs.

Then there's the issue of foreign airlines operating in the US.

This one, Norwegian, was given a foreign carrier licence,

allowing them to expand their routes to and from the US -

it was one of the last acts of the Obama administration.

It caused howls of protest from US airlines and aviation unions.

Again there's another side to it - Norwegian says it is creating

at least 150 new US jobs and has ordered more

than $18 billion worth of jets from Boeing.

So what about the whole question of open skies,

the deals that mean countries open their routes to each other?

The US currently has 120 open skies agreements.

US airline bosses are particularly unhappy about the expansion

of Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways in the US.

Last week they wrote to the government claiming Gulf

carriers have received $50 billion in handouts from their governments

over the past decade - something the Gulf airlines deny.

The President of Emirates has long argued that an attack

on their business by Washington would only damage the US economy.

Well, Norman Gage is an Airline industry analyst

He joins us live down the line now. Norman, this conversation happening

between the airlines and President Trump, what could be the potential

impact of it on people like you and I, passengers, and for the flights

that we want to get and book? I'm not sure it will have too much

effect on you and I because it is really affecting inbound flights to

America from the home bases of these particular airlines. Those airlines,

through their home bases, act as a hub and therefore draw in people

from the far east and from Africa to transfer and then fly on to America.

So you and I, I'm not too sure it will have a great impact. In that

case, then, there is the long-running competition between

Boeing and Airbus, presumably Boeing will be pushing very hard to ride on

the back of Donald Trump's ambitions for by American, higher American.

What could that potentially do to the balance between the two major

players? I think it would depend on if they exist, but I think a lot of

the fleet order from these airlines has already been placed, so to

cancel those would cost a lot of money, to purchase American, they

would have to say, OK, if we are denied landing rights everywhere

that we want to fly to under the bilateral agreement, if that gets

torn up, then we have to reassess where those aircraft are positioned.

But to suddenly switch from Airbus to Boeing can take a number of years

and therefore may not be physically or financially viable. We have also

missed out as well be Iran situation. Iran air, I believe, were

going to be a massive purchaser of aircraft and have turned to Airbus

to purchase those. Norman, can I ask, if President Trump gives these

airline bosses are supportive ear, these airline bosses have been

screaming mad against the likes of Emirates and Etihad, but in

particular emirates. If he does give them a supportive ear and looks at,

I don't know, maybe looking again at the open skies agreement, there

could be huge ramifications for the global aviation industry? Yes, there

could be, but then you also have to look at how many new people are

these airlines lifting and taking to America, first-time riders. A lot of

the routes that emirates have been developing into Florida, leisure

destinations, so the implications go beyond the airlines. Changing the

subject slightly, one of the things that Trump could be smoothing over

with the airlines is to keep down the price of oil. His economic

policies and some of his appointments seem to drive the push

to keep drilling and pumping, so if they can keep the price of oil below

$50 per barrel, the airlines will be making good profits and all of this

other noise just is noise. Norman, thank you very much, good to get

your thoughts. Did you know that President Trump

used to run his own airline? I did, because I was listening when

you told me! I do pay attention! That is how you

become a millionaire, by running an ally. He started off as a

billionaire! Oh, I see.

-- by running an airline. Let's look at some of the news.

Democrats have condemned President Donald Trump's tweet

attacking a clothing retailer after it dropped a fashion line

Mr Trump tweeted that "Ivanka has been treated so unfairly"

A Democratic senator called the post "inappropriate"

and an ex-White House ethics tsar dubbed it "outrageous".

Earlier this month Nordstrom became the fifth retailer to drop

the Ivanka Trump clothing line, citing lack of sales.

Germany's exports reached a record high last year thanks to stronger

demand from other European Union countries as the country

recorded its biggest ever trade surplus of $270 billion.

That was acheived despite a fall in the value of goods sold outside

Last week, German Chanellor Angela Merkel was forced to reject comments

made by one of President Trump's top business advisers that Germany

uses an undervalued euro to exploit trading partners.

Nissan has reported a 3.5% increase in profit, with sales rising

The Japanese carmaker recorded profits of $1.2 billion

Meanwhile, a South Korean court has ruled against Nissan,

saying that the company had installed an emissions-cheating

device in its Qashqai sport utility vehicle.

Shares in Toshiba fell more than 12% at one point today.

This has been going on for some time. Yes, its memory chip business,

let's find out more. Shares ending the day about 7% lower

after falling as much as 12%. It has really been nonstop for the company,

which is just recovering from that accounting scandal since in December

the company said it could face a huge write-down in its US nuclear

business next Tuesday, we will find out exactly how much that breakdown

is but reports suggest six. In order to raise money, that is why the

company is selling its memory chip business, which is making a lot of

money for the company, reports have been emerging about who might be

interested in that unit, though it seems like all the industry rivals,

investment fund. investment fund.

Thank you for that, we will talk to you soon.

Let's stay with the markets. Most Asian markets climbed

to today as investors grew more confident about China,

while the dollar slightly firmed in the wake of growing concerns over

political instability in Now the Nikkei is down

because of a stronger Yen and Japanese investors keen to see

how the meeting with PM Abe goes tomorrow in Washington

with President Donald Trump. In Europe, the uncertainty that has

tainted trading floors for weeks continues to weigh as Donald Trump

appears to press on with a protectionist agenda but provides

no details on his pledge to ramp up Talking of the US, let's find

out what'll be making the biz headlines there today -

here she is, here's Samira. The results will certainly take more

than 140 characters to get through. That's right, Twitter

will be reporting earnings, and it seems measures

to control costs are working. Twitter had been looking to try

and sell itself over the past few months, but interest from potential

buyers eventually waned. Coca-Cola's earnings may be

fizzling out somewhat. The continued decline of fizzy

drinks have the earnings of the world's largest beverage

maker going flat. Even though Coca-Cola has been

diversifying away from sugary sodas and into things like coconut

and vitamin waters, the moves haven't been enough to offset

the slide of sales of sodas. And finally, the owner

of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post will be

reporting earnings and the turbulent US elections will be seen

as a boost for News Corp, as it brought in more

subscribers for its news pages. Joining us is Kathleen Brooks,

research director for City Index. Good morning. Can I start on

Twitter. Twitter will tell us some numbers later on but five years ago

when Facebook went public we all sat here, I sat here with many experts

going, Facebook's got to learn how to monetise those users, make money

from adverts... Facebook cracked it. Twitter still stumbles. It really

does. There are things, these live videos which are expected to... This

is a new thing? It is, which could boost expectations, but it hasn't

been able to monetise and increase its monthly average users, that has

been stagnant, and half of the reason is because there is a lot of

trolling and abuse on Twitter which puts people off from even signing

up. The old adage that any publicity is good publicity and you cannot get

more publicity than the President of the United States using you as a

platform to get messages out. Do you think they will benefit from that?

From a tweeter in chief?! It'll be interesting, because on their

conference call after they announced earnings, they will have to address

it, they will be asked about Trump and it has attracted a lot of people

to follow him, whether that turns into users we will have see.

Switching to Greece, Europe again watching closely, it has not gone

away, and you actually told us this, the Greeks by Finance minister Yanis

Varoufakis is in the building somewhere! Not on this show! But

Greece will be back in the spotlight soon? It has a big debt repayments

to pay back in July, tonnes of European election is going on and

European governments don't want to do any type of consolidations or

anything on their debt, they want them to pay back their debt, get the

IMF is going against European authorities and saying, you have to

do because there is no way they can grow themselves out of this crisis,

you have to reduce the debt you want back, give yourselves a haircut

otherwise the debt level will not be sustainable. This has been a problem

now for seven years, where they have been not growing very well and in

massive amounts of debt. They will never pay that back but because of

all the elections in Europe, no-one in Europe wants to say, actually,

let's be realistic and cut their debt levels. They all want to say,

no, you need to pay us back otherwise we might not get elected

in France in May or Germany in September. And if you cut the debt

for Greece then you set President... For all the other countries,

Portugal, Ireland, the other countries bailed out as. You will

come back to take us through the papers, we will see you shortly.

We'll talk to the boss of one of the world's biggest paint firms

about how he's trying to colour the future of art.

I told you, no more pardons! -- puns.

You're with Business - live from BBC News.

Travel group Thomas Cook have seen a ?200 million increase in revenue,

as they have a pretty solid start to the year.

But the firm is still struggling with a changing holiday market

as demand for holidays - and weak sterling means holiday

prices will be up as much as 9% this summer.

Simon Calder is travel editor for the Independent.

Also for our travel show on the BBC. Good to see you. 9%, more expensive

holidays for Brits. Exactly right and that is driven partly because of

the sterling effect. Sterling about six for a fifth weaker against the

euro and US dollar, but mainly the inferences the cost of hotels in

Spain, particularly in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands,

which mean that given the very strong swing we'd seen away from

Turkey towards Spain, if you insist on going there, you will be paying

quite a lot more. Just been checking out some prices the peak August

holidays. The lowest I can find to Lanzarote, one of the beautiful

Canary Islands, is about $600 per person, and in Turkey the same sort

of distance, same sort of holiday, $500. The chief executive of the

Thomas cut group said sales were doing well in Cyprus, Portugal,

Croatia and Bulgaria but he also said, and this may be will help out

those Greek finance people, that demand for Greece has increased by

more than 50%. The slump in Turkey continues and Egypt is picking up

just a little bit, with more bookings to the red Sea resort of

Haugaard. -- Hughada. He answered all the questions! I had a second

question but I think you answered it anyway.

Plenty on the business live page. Waitrose looking to close six shops

with 500 potential job losses. Read it on the website!

Lots of other stories that is updated throughout the day. For the

very latest, log on. You're watching Business

Live - our top story: President Trump is getting ready

to meet airline bosses Their compliants about competition

from their Gulf rivals The likes of emirates and Qatar. And

ageing airports, the infrastructure, because President Trump says he is

going to build. That has been his message during the

campaign and when he was inaugurated. A quick look at the

markets. Take my glasses off so I can see

that far! And now let's get the inside track

on the business of creativity. ColArt is the parent company behind

some of the world's best known paint and art supply brands -

including Windsor Newton, The company, whose heritage brands

date back hundreds of years, boasts an annual turnover

of ?140 million - that's around The firm's products sold in over 120

countries worldwide to both aspiring Dennis Van Schie, CEO

of ColArt joins us. You are Dutch. Welcome to the

programme. It is fascinating, some people say, I've never heard of this

company big paint is everywhere. What I find fascinating, you have

some of the oldest paint in the world that were used by the masters.

That is absolutely right. ColArt is the name and a company that is not

necessarily well-known but all those fantastic heritage brands used by

the masters in the world, they have been there for hundreds of years, as

you said. We are about to change the company and about to inspire every

artist in the world through a massive transformation. The world

needs more creativity and more art. Your background is in engineering.

Correct. What was the appeal of a paint company, do you paint

yourself? Not necessarily, I'm trying. Engineering and then Sony

smartphones. That's right. The paint, what it does, how you create

beauty and masterpieces that actually tell a story. As an

engineer, I love to make things, I love to create things and that is a

very obvious link between what I've done at Sony and into one of the

most beautiful world market leaders in the fine art industry. We were

talking about the countries you sell the product in, 120. Where is the

biggest market. The US. That is a big market for you. After your

businesses in the US? Revenues wise? Yes. Concerned? About Trump? And

closing trade barriers? Yes and no. As a political opinion, yet I'm

concerned. But for business, it is a fantastic opportunity. These are

times of political and economic instability and people want to

express themselves. That is happening in the US and all over the

world. Art is a universal language, it brings together. We believe in

collaboration collective brainpower. We don't believe isolation, which is

in the US, is a good thing. We are being told to wrap it up. I want to

squeeze this a Swedish company based in the UK, operate all around the

world. Brexit, do you think it will have an impact? Not for us. We

believe we are a global company, we inspire every artist in the world

that's what we are here for. Whatever political circumstances

will be. We appreciate your time, good luck with everything and the

transformation, it wasn't that bad? No! Thank you.

Tim Cooke spoke to us earlier about Apple. We have employees who secured

a work please, they brought their families to the United States, they

happen to be outside the United States when the executive order was

and all of a sudden their families split. They couldn't get back in.

And arguably that's a crisis. Can you imagine that? Well, what other

business stories has the media been taking interesting? Kathleen Brooks

is back to discuss them. We have spoken a lot about the Twitter

effect. The tweet from President Trump about Nordstrom dropping his

daughter's fashion line. Interesting. A father sticking up

for his daughter. Nordstrom are trying to say it is for business

reasons. But sales did very well so maybe it is politics. He is the

president and he shouldn't be pointing out companies. What is

interesting is he has pointed out other companies' failings before,

and that has caused the share prices to fall dramatically. But

Nordstrom's share price rose yesterday and so did other

retailers, who may follow suit and drop the Ivanka Trump line.

Nordstrom stores tend to be democratic heart lines on both

coasts, they may have been anti-Trump WACA and voted in their

millions for Hillary and that's not always a bad thing to be picked out

by Trump. It is the fifth retailer in the US to have dropped Ivanka

fashion line. Yes. He is definitely unconventional in how he operates as

president. Unconventional with a capital U.

Record numbers of US citizens renouncing their citizenship.

Before Trump, we should say. This is not a Trump fact.

Quite a sharp rise. It was, and I think this is

Americans have decided maybe it was better to drop citizenship rather

than pay tax twice. Unlike other countries, in the US they tend to

have a global taxation. For example, Boris Johnson on the front here said

he would have been liable to $50,000 in tax for how is he sold in

Islington and the profits he gained on that but he hasn't lived in the

US since he was five years old. But because he was a US citizen back

then when he sold the house he would still have been liable. It will be

interesting to see this year if we see another rise, based on expats

wanting to have nothing to do with the US if they were Democrat

supporters and they don't like the political direction the US is going

into. In 20 seconds can you tell us the snap story, it's hilarious? It

is. Snap interactive, a dating app saw their share price increase

because people thought they were Snapchat and this only worth about

25 million. Expensive mistake. Kathleen Brooks, always a pleasure.

There will be more business news throughout the day

on the BBC Live webpage and on World Business Report.

Good morning, I'm sure it feels cold enough already but it will be even

more cold in the next few days. A classic weather pattern where

nothing is moving.