OK, well I'll defend bmi. It's a company that has been around since before MOL and Stelios were born. It has led the way in liberalisation of various markets since before Virgin Atlantic was a real player - BA's reaction to a rival on shorthaul was something along the lines of "How dare they??!!!" when they arrived on the scene (which makes it a bit disappointing that some of the reaction from employees to LoCo's has been the same). It has been largely profitable - at least to the extent that the shareholders have been willing to hold onto their investment (and their investment has held or increased its value). It has outlasted other airlines with various heritages - Laker (original), BCal, Sabena, Swissair, etc etc. The training within bmi seems to be widely regarded as benchmark standard. Most people at work are happy, conscientious (none of this quick cabin service - hide behind the curtain stuff), get on well with each other. The airline has consistently won travel awards for its shorthaul operation, bmibaby won its first award within 18 months of its first flight, and its longhaul product gets five stars. It has grown as fast as it has been able to grow its market - and the major restriction on growth has been regulation (regulated price/frequency market to key destinations from LHR, in the old days regulatory protection of BA, and most notably in the last 5 years Bermuda II).
Of course it has its problems - but frankly Pprune is bound to bring out the whingers. Most of the people who are happy to get on with their job don't bother speaking.
I am not a manager - and I am far from ignorant (or even unaffected!) by some of the problems in bmi. But lets get it in perspective.