Originally Posted by
SealinkBF
Virgin always do this. They "tried" for years to get bmi. Nice coverage for them, again.
It was Sir Michael Bishop that was reluctant to sell BMI to Sir Richard Branson as the Virgin Group were actively pursuing the the airline but according to whoever you wish to believe the two did not see eye to eye on many things and it was perceived that Bishop had a dislike of Branson hence the fact that after ''trying for years'' to get BMI Bishop finally sold out to Lufthansa who already had a controlling interest in the airline.
By all accounts Bishop could be a difficult person to work with and if it wasn't for his arrogance and reluctance to sell BMI to Virgin we may well have seen a respectable second force airline again something that the United Kingdom hasn't really had since the days of BCAL over thirty years ago.
Sir Michael Bishop not selling BMI to the Virgin Group was a lost opportunity for British aviation and a similar situation will never be available again.
The fact that Virgin Atlantic have shown an interest in Flybe has obviously surprised everyone and with the investment of Delta in the airline and the fact that they themselves have a very large order for the A221 series perhaps if any purchase was made we could possibly see the Flybe fleet modernised in the future with that aircraft.
Interesting times but we're all have to wait and see how this all works out, at least the news seems to have come directly from Virgin Atlantic rather than from Sir Richard Branson himself so there could well be some substance behind this announcement.
If the deal did go through I envisage huge cuts to the current Flybe network as well as a reduction in the fleet.