bmi baby Winter 2003/4 schedule reveals massive capacity cut at East Midlands

[Simon Lumley]

I've just seen the new bmi baby Winter 2003/4 schedule for East Midlands and there is quite a massive drop in capacity compared with last winter (2002/3) and summer 2003.

The following routes will be withdrawn:

MILAN-BERGAMO; MUNICH; SALZBURG; PISA; BRUSSELS; FARO.


The following routes will see a cut in capacity:

NICE: From daily last winter and this summer to 3x weekly;

BARCELONA: From daily both seasons to 5x weekly;

PALMA: From daily both seasons to 3x weekly;

JERSEY: From daily both seasons to 4x weekly;

MURCIA: same as last winter at 1x weekly flight but drops 6 flights from summer 2003.

GENEVA: From daily last winter to one weekly flight on a Sunday operating only in ski season (Dec-Mar).


This is bad news for EMA and looks as if they may be taking 2x B737s out of EMA and giving them to Manchester or Cardiff.

It looks as if maybe Easyjet are outperforming BMI Baby on many routes and so BMI Baby is having to cut back.

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

[MarkD]

certainly seems like it: ORK-MAN to go 2x and ORK-CWL 4 weekly - bad news for Air Wales ATRs! If Baby's ORK-CWL goes well perhaps DUB-CWL might follow... but what would Mr MoL say :D

[newswatcher]

Interesting slant on the announcement, which was released on the 2nd July. Compare SL's downbeat approach to that of bmibaby. Extracts follow:

The new schedule, which runs from October until March, includes 45 routes from four UK airports, with almost six hundred flights per week
Geneva, which is reintroduced for a second season from East Midlands and Cardiff, is a brand new route from bmibaby's newest bases at Manchester and Teesside. Other new routes include Barcelona and Prague from Manchester, and Cork and Glasgow Prestwick from Cardiff
Tony Davis, managing director of bmibaby, said: "This winter we're offering more flights from more destinations than ever before. We'll be introducing services from our new base at Teesside Airport, celebrating a year of operating from Cardiff and enjoying our first winter at Manchester.

"We're already on track to carry three million passengers this year, and with the ongoing development of our services, look forward to building on that figure even further next year."


Has TD been borrowing Blair's spin doctor, or has something changed since this announcement was made?
:confused:

[Uncle Monty]

It's not going to CWL. Baby's programme there has been cut by 25 per cent - summer 03 - winter 03/04.

[MarkD]

Hmm... calling CWL-PIK a "new" route is certainly spin, since it's only a "redirected" one from GLA!

[Buster the Bear]

So are they coming to Luton?

13 June 2003

FT tips bmibaby for new Luton base

bmi british midland is to cut its 4,850-strong workforce by 10% annually over the next three years, resulting in the loss of around 1,200 jobs, largely from its main base at Heathrow Airport.
The airline said the move was part of its Project Blue Sky cost-cutting drive, drawn up in the wake of a full year loss of £19.6m, the worst in its history.
Speaking at a press conference to call on the government to increase Heathrow’s capacity, bmi chairman, Sir Michael Bishop, said the job cuts were expected to be achieved through natural wastage and there were unlikely to be any compulsory redundancies.
Project Blue Sky, which aims to make annualised cost savings of £100m within three years, will also include an overhaul of the airline’s fleet, resulting in bmi operating all Airbus aircraft and transferring its Boeing 737s to its budget arm, bmibaby.
Further savings will be achieved through a reduction in sales and distribution costs by driving more bookings onto the internet and streamlining passenger processing with greater use of self-service check-in systems.
Sir Michael also raised the possibility that bmibaby could expand from its current hubs at Cardiff and East Midlands. ‘We need a stronger base [for bmibaby] in the UK,’ he said. ‘We must go to the south east.’
According to the FT, bmi is understood to have entered into discussions with TBI, the owner of Luton Airport, about establishing a hub there. By doing so it would go head-to-head with easyJet, Europe’s biggest budget airline.
Regarding capacity, Sir Michael accused BAA of abusing its monopoly control of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. He urged the government to ringfence BAA to its current sites and instead allow the construction and operation of new facilities, including runways, to be undertaken by a different company.
But a spokeswoman for BAA dismissed bmi’s argument. ‘You cannot have one part of an airport run by one company and another part operated by someone else,’ she said. ‘It would be an operational nightmare and could even be a safety risk.’

[kpiko3]

two spare 737`s,maybe Bmi Baby is thinking of basing them at PIK,he did say in the news article on www.GPIA.co.uk that they would consider new international routes from Scotland.Plus flyglobespans departure from PIK it would be good to see BMI Baby filling the spaces.

Geneva
Jersey
East Midlands
Prague

It would be nice to see these at PIK.