would love to know where you all get your info from!!!!
As I understand the Virgin / bmi rumour is a strong one however both Virgin or bmi do not have the ability to take on or the other over .................however a merger would make good sence.
As for loosing money the board at bmi are more switched on than people realise!!
The only part of the operation thats loosing money is mainline shorthaul out of all bases ( disregard regional ). And the long haul operation has the biggest growth i.e. pax figures up 78% this feb compared to the previous year. bmi make profit on cargo alone without having to fill the flights. However every flight seems to be going FULL all the time on the long haul routes in all cabins!!
As for closing the long haul base in manchester if Virgin and bmi do merge then Virgin have been looking at opening a permanent manchester base for their florida route and were looking to do routes to the Carribean..........is that why bmi are expanding their routes to include the carribean toronto and are also thinking of south africa, india, china and the west coast of the U.S. within the next couple of years. As well as doing regional LH from other bases on the A319. Both airlines seem to be working together without making any big statments or treading on each other toes!! When Virgin joins Star Alliance we may see big changes as in BVA ( British Virgin Airlines ).!!
I do hope Virgin and bmi merge as this would make a great british airline that could then rival BA, AA and the other one world partners in the U.K.