Gazetteer: Laugh at plane silly airports

IT TAKES a lot to make cynical business journalists laugh, but flight comparison website Skyscanner has hit the spot.

Not content with comparing prices, staff at the site have come up with lists of amusing airport names.

So, step forward Batman Airport, in Turkey, and Useless Loop Airport, in Australia, which feature among the ten funniest airport names.

Other contenders included Black Tickle Airport, in Canada, Spain's Moron Airport and Raspberry Strait Airport, in the United States.

Other creative lists from the website – all based on official airports, recognised by the International Air Transport Association – include "airports that may offend", such as Canada's Old Crow Airport and Pratt Airport, in the US.

But the best on the lists have to be the Australian pair of Wagga Wagga Airport and Woodie Woodie Airport.

KILLER QUOTE

"Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning"

Steve Jobs, Apple chief executive, after over a million new iPhone 3GS were sold in its first three days in the US, against analysts' predictions of 500,000.

FACT OF THE DAY

$500bn

AS MUCH as $500 billion (£304bn) could be lost to fraudsters as a result of global governments' $5 trillion stimulus packages, according to a new report.

Stimulus packages include "big-budget" capital projects, which are traditional targets for corruption, the Kroll Global Fraud Report said.

Estimates from Transparency International, an anti-corruption coalition, claim that corruption can raise procurement contract costs by at least 10 per cent and up to 30 per cent in emergency situations.

GOOD DAY

Old buses

STAGECOACH'S chief executive and best known driver, Brian Souter, has donated a further pair of his old buses to Roman Rock, managing director of Bedlam Paintball. Rock will use the old double deckers to make a new "Stagecoach Stand-off" game at his Edzell site.

BAD DAY

Expensive insurers

CUSTOMERS are spending an average of two hours searching online for a cheap car insurance quote, according to a new survey. Last year, motorists only spent an hour and a half looking for quotes. This is the first time in five years the figure has risen, Swinton Insurance said.