25/10/2016 World Business Report

Coming in to land at last - the UK government's long-awaited

decision on airport expansion is set to be announced today,

South Korea's losing streak takes its toll on the economy -

Samsung - Hyundai and Hanjin - the hat-trick of own-goals.

I'm Sally Bundock - also in the programme the little

blue bird has lost its voice - more jobs look set to go

The UK government will announce today whether it would prefer

to expand Heathrow or Gatwick airport, with Heathrow widely

expected to get the go-ahead for a third runway.

Critically, though, the binding MPs' vote -

the one that counts - will not happen for another

Heathrow is already operating at 98% capacity,

and last year an Independent Commission backed an extra runway

But the main competition comes from Gatwick Airport.

Brexit favours their plan for an extra runway,

because they can do it cheaper and quicker than their rival.

The Airports Commission estimates that expanding Heathrow

could add as much as $258 billion to the UK economy,

runway at Gatwick could add up to $155bn.

But the airline industry as a whole is expected to generate

revenues of $709 billion this year with hubs like Dubai

and Schipol airport keen to take a larger share of that market

With me is John Strickland, aviation and airlines expert

Nice to see you, John. We should get a decision that as I have already

explained, it is not a done deal. Potentially the first step in a long

word with this political consultation process going on as you

said, maybe one year. Even if that goes smoothly, and the MPs ratify

it, it will still have to be the normal planning enquiry and the

contentious nature of runway capacity, there could be legal

appeals as well. We are not likely to see any new runway capacity for

ten years. In the meantime, other airports around the world, they are

stealing the march. Heathrow used to be the biggest international airport

in the world. Dubai overtook it last year. Even in Europe, which is

infrastructure constraints, we see capacity available at airports like

Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. While we are debating, other

countries are doing something about it, recognising the important role

of aviation is an economic catalyst on the 21st century. Such a

political hot potato in this country with business leaders showing their

exasperation, the investment community and also of course

politicians and residents as you have mentioned. Just explain from

the business point of view why this extra one way is so beneficial to

Heathrow and Gatwick -- Heathrow and Gatwick. We need to understand the

role of aviation in every respect as it contributes to the economy. The

airport creates direct employment editor means of doing business. We

are in a post- Brexit world to show we are open to business but business

people cannot go out to win contracts in these airports. Freight

is limited because Heathrow is a gateway to freight. Also Gatwick.

Tourism, in the case of Ypres, a far bigger ratio of inbound tourism. The

pound has gone down that got to be or to fly into the UK. Let's say

Heathrow does get this extra under way -- runway. Gatwick says, we will

build one anyway. It's not quite that simple. Just talk us through

it. Gatwick has had a legal barrier to growing until 2019. It's made a

big picture this new runway. It's not just a case of building a runway

at any airport. We have to look at what airlines are willing to use. In

the vast majority, they have indicated they want capacity at

Heathrow. Even capacity of Gatwick, easyJet saying it wants runway at

Heathrow. Connecting passengers as well, Heathrow, the many decades, is

far outshone Gatwick in attracting business customers so it is high

stakes, both airports are very full but airlines given the choice would

go to Heathrow before Gatwick. They might not even come to the UK if

they cannot get into Heathrow. Thank you for your time. I will talk to

you about this in the future. When we are the government 's decision,

we will update you. Canada and the European Union

say their free trade deal is not dead, although three Belgian regions

are blocking its signature. All of the Belgium's regions must

approve the deal before the federal government can join other EU

countries in signing it. Three French-speaking parts

of the country led by Socialists want more time to

study the agreement. Flemish-speaking authorities say

the delay has made the country The European Council President,

Donald Tusk, said it was still possible to sign it

on Thursday as planned. But on Monday, the Canadian Trade

Minister, Chrystia Freeland, stressed the ball was

now in the EU's court. Canada is ready to sign now. We have

done our job. Now it is up to Europe to do its job and the Europeans have

acknowledged at all levels that it's their job to do and they have all

been saying today publicly that they are hard at work. Let's wish them

well. We believe that CETA today is an excellent agreement. The leaders

of the EU and the leaders of the member states have said, all of the

leaders at the federal level, in fact, of all 28 member states, have

said and the leaders of the commission and the EU, have said

that CETA is the best deal that the EU has ever negotiated. I think that

that is absolutely right and this deal is done. It's time to move on,

get it signed and get it ratified. Bloomberg is reporting

that the online social networking service Twitter is planning

to cut hundreds of jobs. The company had 3,860 employees

globally in June 2016. In September, Twitter said it

would lay off some employees and halt engineering work at one

of its development centers The company has not yet commented

on the reports. The Chinese conglomerate HNA has

bought a 25-per cent stake HNA paid 6-point 5-billion dollars

for the stake. Chinese companies have increasingly

bene investing in tourism-related businesses as more of its citizens

travel abroad. HNA announced in April that it had

agreed to acquire Carlson Hotels, which owns the Radisson

and Park Plaza brands. That is talk about the South Korean

economy. It is stalling. It has lost value of goods and services to the

country. That is go to Rico Hizon who was in Singapore. South Korea

has had an extremely difficult time. Very challenging times indeed for

the South Korean economy. It has been hit by several bad events. You

have the country 's worst ever strikes at higher and die. The

collapse of its biggest shipping firm, Hanjin and Samsung's worst

ever poll -- product recall, the Galaxy Note7. If not, the economy

would have performed much better over this period of July -

September. We saw growth of 0.7% quarter on quarter. 2.7% annualised

growth. It would have been much better than what we have seen over

the past couple of quarters. There have been other factors contributing

to this slower growth and one is heavy helpful -- household debt

growth, reduced consumption and infantry spiralling up. Looking

ahead, October - December, economists are forecasting they will

also be affected by Samsung's decision to drop its Galaxy Note7

smartphone although the economic impact was all reflected in the

third quarter. A lot of challenging times indeed for the Korean economy.

That is all from World Business Report. We will be reviewing some of

the other key stories on the news today. See you in a few minutes.