12 Aircraft simply will not pay the bills. This is Luftys way of driving down the business until there is nothing left. They will wait till the next lot of leases come up and drive it down until its dead and buried.
One thing is certain passengers ain't going to book now with a company that is sinking.
You may be right or a mile out, who knows for sure, there are some positives in this (apart from the people directly effected of course) if this is a slow death, why, it would have been easier to shut up shop, 12 leases would be sorted by LH given their clout and at least they would have drawn a line under it, this way the have exposed themselves to the down side risk.
I doubt the public will bat an eye lid RBS have announced 3'700 job cuts this week alone and they maybe underwritten 83% by uk gov but LH is backing baby in this it seems.
Industry figures have suggested a loss at bmi for year ending 31/12/2009 of £150m-£200m for bmi group i have heard figs for baby quoted at £5m loss and Regional £0-3M loss, that leaves one hell of a whole to fill from elsewhere!!!
I was at an ex regional bods wedding do in Harrogate a few weeks back and a Regional BALAP guy said "watch what they do baby, take their jobs cut and multiply by 10 fold to see whats coming mainlines way"
I think a lot of peeps are going to have a crap Xmas
Very sad news for all of colleagues from the other bases and at Tiny Town that are going to be affected by this, and who will continue to be affected as Lufthansa continue to chop and change their strategy for the bmi group, sadly I'm sure more is to come. I'm sure Lufthansa are well aware of what they're doing, and that this move has come as a way of being able to reduce losses, whilst still maintaining an important presence in the UK, although I can't help but think that this will do some serious damage to the bmibaby brand and reputation. After the XL debacle, people have been very wary to book flights with operators looking shaky. Hopefully the likes of easyJet, Monarch, Jet2 and flybe are looking where they can fill the gaps, and hopefully with decent job offers for displaced colleagues as well.
Will be interesting to see 2 baby aircraft at EMA in the future !!!! Cant wait to see EMA as a FR airport, with a possible 9 aircraft for S10, baby would have cleared up that situation nicely, don't look so certain now though.
How it was in hmm, there first year!! So this makes me wonder, did baby peak in 2006?
Skip.rat.... apologies if you thought my comments were directed at the pilot fraternity of mainline, they were not. They are directed firmly at the management of Mainline and Baby. As one of the 158 affected by today's announcement, the mood of the majority is one of being let down and mismanaged. I totally agree with your comments regarding the financial artistry that has been going on by SMB.
Lufty have been forced into taking BMI group and despite their best efforts not one bidder has materialized to take it off their hands. So they are forced to try and stop the bleeding. Baby today and unfortunately Mainline and regional at the end of the month. The cull at the top has already started, but the board and previous management must the responsibility of the state the business is in.
We were told that the minimum no of aircraft required to operate as a financial going concern was 17. That has now become 12 for next year and we can all guess what will happen next winter when more leases expire. Lufty will wind it down to nothing and concentrate on their core business.
To all who are affected either with baby,mainline or regional I wish you well for the future and hope we can all find a better place to enjoy our chosen profession.
There were rumours that Jet2 were in discussion with investors and Lufthansa, to offload bmibaby and integrate it into Jet2's business model.
I guess todays announcement rules that out, Jet2 do not need to take a huge risk anymore, simply open a new base at the airports where bmibaby is cutting back on, like we have already seen major expansion at MAN and a new base at EMA. Watch this space with regard to CWL and BHX! Lufthansa obviously have a long term stratergy for what is going to happen to bmi/bmibaby etc, but clearly it is not interested in increasing their presence in the UK based LCC market. It's a huge shame as bmibaby are one of my favourite airlines, and I think an enlarged Jet2/bmi baby would have been a huge success, and could have realistically competed with Ryanair/easyJet.
Unfortunately, the writing was on the wall way back when bmibaby failed to expand at the necessary minimum rate. You've got to be big and keep getting bigger faster than anyone else if you want to be a top dog in low cost operations. Otherwise, you starve or get eaten alive.
bmi, bmibaby and the other tiny train set with the skinny jets whose name I forget are clearly incapable of facing competition from anyone with better management. Which is pretty much anyone.
From an SLF perspective, I find it hard now to book a flight with baby. The carrier seems to have an unfortunate habit of cancelling booked flights and whilst this is perfectly legal, it doesn't engender customer loyalty since the customer then has to find other flights at short notice often at a higher cost. This then makes the customer less likely to book baby flights in the future in case the same thing should happen again.
I sincerely hope baby will survive as I've found the crews great and it is people's livelihoods we're talking about here. But, IMHO, what they surely need to do is show some commitment to routes so that customers can book with confidence in them knowing that the route will operate. Unfortunately, the announcement of the fleet reduction leads to the conclusion that more routes will be cut, more customers disappointed and probably more people generally less willing to book with baby in the future. It is hard to escape from the conclusion that they are on a generally downward spiral although I really hope I am wrong and that LH has some sort of masterplan for their rescue.
To all my baby collegues.......did u know that only today, i believe, the pilot management at bmi have been asking for what i can only describe as volunteers to apply for an airline that they have a lead in with. Required...4000hrs, 2000 on jets. Its bloody emirites and none of the baby lot have had a look in!!!
Shameful
I completely sympathise with you Apron but are you sure of your facts?
Right off the bat, I dont have any facts but I was under the impression that this was simply a steer in the right direction from the managers not a lead in. Do you have information that actually suggests that bmi mainline pilots will get an immediate position upon application or even a fast tracked interview?
Sketchy details at present, so if you know more......
Why not they kept sixty of you from the dole queue last year, by the same method, shame the respect and loyaty(if you can call it) that doesnt extend to baby.
Virgin doid the same for thier guys
What happened last year was a Secondment. I may be wrong but i do not think that what you are talking about this time is a Secondment.
Not backing any particular side but i was just trying to ensure that the correct facts are used before people start banding around accusations of what is fair & what is not. Secondment is completly different to a "chaps so & so are recruiting if you are interested in it" message.
I do not know any of the details but if one of the bmi folk who has taken this further would like to correct any of my errors, i'd happily stand corrected.
right off the bat....the fact is that Interest and c.v's are initially to be given to BB and some other recruitment fella. If it is indeed them that passes them to Emirates then tis is more than a gentle steer but like I said some agreement/arrangement.
!!!! Cant wait to see EMA as a FR airport, with a possible 9 aircraft for S10, baby would have cleared up that situation nicely, don't look so certain now though.
Linear Mode
