bmibaby routes

[kestral1]

Just been speaking to my friend who work for BMI at there head office, and from what she has told me they are looking at a few new routes. LA, San Fran and Miami. She also said that the Washington look like it is goiing to go.

[no, no, no]

When you say "she works for bmi" - does she actually get involved in any decision making like this, or is it just their own internal rumours - ie if she was a finance clerk or worked in the kitchen she probably wouldn't be a good source.

Especially, which is why I've responded, considering that American Airlines have already announced Manchester to Miami..... would bmi really go up against them???

And how many times have I seen that their Washington is going to go on here.......

[kestral1]

She actually works in the HR dept and informed me that she has just come out of a meeting and they have been told that there is going to be a massive recruitment drive at manchester for the long haul ops

[flyingfrog]

no, no, no,

A bit harsh to say a finance clerk wouldn't be a good source, they do get involved in the costings on new routes, you know.

Kestral1

The recruitment drive would be for the new routes, already announced, to the Caribbean in time for the winter timetable?

bmi will fly to India before anywhere else, this will be when the Toronto flight finishes at the end of summer, subject to Government approval.

As for LA, San Fran and Miami, surely new shiney planes are required before this happens!

Happy flying!

[chiglet]

no,no,no,
BMI already go head to head with American....MAN-ORD and seem to be doing ok:ok:
we aim to please,itkeeps the cleaners happy

[KAT TOO]

Following Jet2 launch of LBA-CDG against bmi/regional the sleeping blue has stirred!

From the 1 of November the BD495/496 (mid day LBA-CDG) slot will transfer to bmibaby using a wet leased Fokker 100, a few weeks later they will start a Palma & Malaga service, with a much larger program set to kick of in 05.

I understand that Jersey & cork will follow in due course with a CPH service starting (again!) with regional

Well if you go around kicking a wasps nest (viper?) you must expect to get stung

It will be interesting to see what happenS Jet2 start flying to EDI

[no, no, no]

flyingfrog - you're correct - came out a bit harsh and didn't mean to undermine or dis-respect anyone!

chiglet - yes, bmi do compete with AA on ORD, but don't they do it with United Airlins, and as such offer many connections beyond Chicago?

My feeling was that United have no presence in Miami really, but AA have it as one of their hubs - so bmi would really be fighting American just for the local leisure traffic - and would that sustain an operation? Maybe it would? I just think they would suffer!

[chiglet]

no,no,no,
I think that you mean USAir as a Star Alliance Member :confused:
Loads on all Trans At services by BMI seem ok to a [humble] ATC'r
watp,iktch

[AOG-YYZ]

I flew BMI YYZ-MAN-YYZ outbound from YYZ on Wednesday 9, June returning to Toronto on Saturday 12, June 2004. Full down the back but plenty of open seats in super comfort and business class.

One other observation; Service on BMI beats the pants off what Air Canada used to offer on it's YYZ-MAN flights. The new A340 equipment is, in my opinion, superior to the 767.

[Caslance]

My God!!! That was dangerously close to being complimentary about something associated with Manchester!!!

How's my arch-nemesis then? :ok:

BTW - that was an A330. The A340 has FOUR engines....... ;)

[Digitalis]

Can't see any new BMI transatlantic routes without new aircraft. Especially as West Coast destinations normally require about 2.5 aircraft per daily route. For BMI to operate Boston, Chicago, Washington, Miami, LA and San Fran, plus the Caribbeans and India, they're going to have to get hold of at least 10 more longhaul aircraft, even if most of these routes are somewhat less frequent than daily!

[G-LOST]

All the new routes in the near future will probably originate from LBA and will be offered by bmi Baby.

[Digitalis]

Baby transatlantic from Leeds??!! That's a gutsy move ;)

[G-LOST]

Well, you can get a bit of a run-up from the 14 loop!

To clarify, the rumour is that LBA expansion will probably pre-date any further transatlantic stuff from MAN.

[hotline]

KATTOO

BM in their various guises have been promising Copenhagen for about the last five years. Let's hope they do it this time as I'm sure the traffic is out there. Some German routes would be useful as well; whether or not they'd do them at the expense of Star Alliance from Manchester remains to be seen. And then there's the question of slots...

I'm all for LBA expanding healthily but there are physical and practical limitations to much more growth at the moment. As for additional operators and routes, the more the merrier as long as LBA can cope comfortably and can plan properly for sustained expansion.

Cheers.;)

[Bagso]

...we had heard that all the new Bay 737s would be based at Man not LBA !

[AOG-YYZ]

Your right, it was a A330, just a slip of the finger. As to offering praise for Manchester, credit were credit is due.

I would, however, offer a suggestion; Do you think that MAN could change the seats in T1 arrivals? They are disgustingly filthy. I waited from 0610 until 0700 for SIXT, the rent-a-car people, to open. Sat in the restaurant, or stood, rather than sit on those seats.

One other item; While waiting for our depature gate to be displayed, I did notice a security guard instructing a couple to extinguish their cigaret's. The message must have gotten through to MAN that "No Smoking" means exactly that.

[Cargo]

KAT TOO

I’d say Jet2 must be absolutely petrified at the mere thought of competing with the invincible bmibaby/bmi regional. NOT!

I’d be surprised if any of this ever materialises. Even if it did, there’s certainly no threat to Jet2. One token CDG rotation on a 100 seater, more than enough traffic on AGP for both, baby would be mad to launch PMI in Winter and I doubt Jet2 care about ORK or JER. CPH is the only potential worry to Jet2, but I’m sure they’d soon see a bmi RJ off the route.

[onion]

I think some of you at Leeds are just getting a little ahead of yourselves.

1. bmibaby are unlikely to start operating f100, stick to one type of aircraft makes everything alot cheaper.

2. As hotline says there are physical limitations at Leeds already, such as the fact that your full at night, so very unlikey to get based aircraft.

3. As ib16uk says baby have spread themselves very thin, although they don't fly from Stansted

4. Operating baby from Leeds will dilute the Teesside, East Midlands and Manchester operations to varying degrees.

5. They already have bmi regional who have carved out a niche market for themselves and probably make more money than baby could on the routes, especially if you pit baby against jet2.

6. I think you may have got mixed up with the idea that baby are supposedly going to do a Teessde - Paris and you thought Teesside meant Leeds.

[Scottie Dog]

Onion

Couldn't agree with you more!

[Flightrider]

Onion, you are implying that there is some logic to decisions made within the bmi group by your posting and that route decisions are based on rational analysis. This is a rather dangerous assumption. The very decision to launch bmibaby in the first place (kneejerk reaction to easyJet's arrival at East Midlands) indicates that there isn't always any rational reason for their decisions and other basing decisions (opening TeesSide, starting services from LGW) suggest that its network strategy is based on moving aircraft around in an endeavour to find profitable routes.

Until bmibaby make a formal pronouncement, it would be safer to rule nothing out and rule nothing in.

[onion]

ib16uk, bmibaby do not fly from Stansted.
Germanwings fly that route. The bmibaby website has a link through to the Germanwings website so you can buy tickets.
Be careful about your facts.

[onion]

G-Lost I think you are jumping the gun a bit over the expansion at Leeds, especialy your ideas about baby basing aircraft there.
Any extra expansion of baby will be at Manchester, Gatwick and Teesside. Have a look at the the baby at LBA thread for further discussions.

[WHBM]

there are physical limitations at Leeds already, such as the fact that your full at nightPossibly the overnight planning takes account of 25% of the BMIBaby fleet being stranded downroute each night having gone tech :ooh:

[ILS 119.5]

All the F100's are at LBA so they could use the extra one for other routes.

[Buster the Bear]

Low-cost airline Bmibaby is to expand its Gatwick airport operation.

The Leicestershire carrier has acquired extra slots at the south-eastern airport, extending the number of flights it can fly out of Gatwick.

The airline currently operates once-daily flights to both Cork and Prague at the airport.

Spokeswoman Nicola McCabe said: "We applied for extra slots at Gatwick and we were successful.

"We are now in the process of working out the flying programme."

She could not say how many new slots the airline had secured or what new destinations its Gatwick operation would now take in.

Bmibaby, a subsidiary of the Castle Donington airline group BMI, flies to 30 European destinations from Gatwick, Nottingham East Midlands, Teesside, Manchester and Cardiff.
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