THE popular business podcast The Profit Margin, which provides an in-depth weekly look at the world of business, is being made available today through the pages of Business Insight in the Irish News (www.irishnews.com/profitmargin)
Widely acknowledged as a go-to website for Irish entrepreneurs, the Profit Margin - which is supported by First Trust Bank and the Ulster Business School - offers advice, insight and experience from the entrepreneurial front-line.
Contributing to the weekly podcast will be business journalist and broadcaster Naomi McMullan, who previously worked in the business unit of UTV in Belfast and in London for CNN International, along with recently-retired UTV business editor and Irish News columnist Jamie Delargy.
Irish News marketing John Brolly said: "Business is one of the most important news features of today's news agenda and we're delighted to add a dynamic new business feature to our extensive business coverage by offering the Profit Margin as part of extensive online business offering which now allows us to provide business reports in print, online and as podcasts to serve all the different needs of our business audience."
Today's Profit Margin podcast looks at how Dublin Airport is making an aggressive bid to attract travellers from Northern Ireland (around 400,000 passengers from the north currently flying in and out of Dublin).
The trade is seen as a threat, leaching business from local airports. But should businesses completely change their thinking around Dublin airport? Should they look at it as a strategic asset and a gateway into Northern Ireland, working with it rather than against it?
Enda Corneille, Ireland manager for Emirates, which runs two return flights a day out of Dublin to their hub airport in Dubai, maintains that in the short-term the main goal is to drive the business out of Dublin.
But in the podcast he talks about the plans for the Irish business, how it could assist the economy in Northern Ireland and the possibility of perhaps one day coming to Belfast.
Graham Keddie from Belfast International Airport is bullish about the sector’s growth prospects here. He points out that passenger numbers are close to pre-recession levels and staff numbers are growing, with an additional people being recruited at the airport over the past eight months.
While admitting that it’s almost inevitable that long haul traffic is always more likely to fly from the Republic, he says they can compete on European traffic. In the interview he talks about the focus in the years ahead and what particular routes Belfast is making progress on.
