A few facts.....
1. bmibaby is limited to 13 aircraft by the bmi board.
2. Teesside is not going to become a good base with 1 737 based there.
From 1 and 2, it is obvious that you either give up on Teesside (embarrassing volte face for all concerned) - or you move things about to get critical mass at Teesside for their first summer season.
3. Cardiff loads are very good on the majority of routes.
4. In the low cost game, loads and yields are simply proportional.
So don't sweat about how they are doing. They will - like all lo-costs - tweak their routes. Bear in mind that they had no role models in Cardiff - doing a lo-cost in the South East is dead easy, you copy everyone else, and Bristol was just a Go copy of Stansted - Cardiff is virgin territory and a learning exercise for all concerned (and look at how Go played tunes with their routes our of BRS, as has easyJ?)
5. Cardiff needs a new road to the airport, and baby and the airport have been pushing the cretins in the assembly hard to get them to make a positive decision, rather than carrying on batting it back and forth between the Vale council, the DETR and themselves.
7. Baby needs more aircraft at Cardiff and their other bases, but Sir Michael, he say no....
8. Tony D was, in a former incarnation, the man in charge of government relations for bmi - so is well used to playing the politicians (and airline bosses?) at their own game to get what he wants.
Could it be that moving a 737 may be a political ploy?
Let's not talk baby down, boys and girls..... Tiny Tony knows what he is doing, trust me.
TA