flymeagain - how do you know so much about bmi's longhaul ambitions being a journalist - or do you have some good sources out there??????
India and SA would make sense though if it was true.
Also - how d you find out what advance bookings are like? Surely they don't let on if they are full in business with waitslits????? or am I missing something??
Re shorthaul, I read recently that bmi have launched the 3rd largest amount of European routes over the past 12 months, only beaten by Air France and I think easyjet.... launching the likes of Alicante, Venice, Naples and Inverness shows they are having success in leisure type places, but with them launching Aberdeen 5x a day it also shows that they also can go after the business markets - and from what I have heard from up north they are having quite an impact on the market.
Everyone seems to forget that they offer may business routings like Scotland, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Leeds etc that are offered at high frequencies, therefore targeting the business sectors - the only reason they struggle for overall awareness is that they aren't a low-cost, nor a longhaul flag carrier, but for the people who fly on the routes they offer they do have very high awareness!!!!!! Especially with the market that travels several times a year - not just once!!!
And don't forget what impact that STAR has on them - they are also acting as a feeder airline to the likes of Thai, Singapore, United and Air Canada - just like BA's shorthaul do... it's just that they are connecting to an alliance and not just to themselves!!!
Regarding take overs - is this Virgin story ever going to be put to bed???? How many times do we have to hear it!!!!!! And no way would BA ever be able to take over bmi - the competition people would not allow one airline to control over 60% of slots - and provide the only feed in to Heathrow from Scotland etc....