BMI and unconditional love
Hear me out with this one - reading posts here for a while has planted a seed, and it took a while to draft this to make sure it didn't sound like I'm some obsessive fan of Sir Michael Bishop... it will probably make more sense if you don't work close to (ie work for) BD.
Am I alone in always forgiving BMI for their mistakes and lack or direction?
1) The business lacks clear focus - is it a business or leisure airline? And if it's both, why can't the schedules reflect that with better direct timings to key cities at peak times and then leisure routes in between?
2) The 'bmi' brand is brilliant, and I still think the most recent livery is one of the most attractive around (regardless of whether it's a summer's evening or a gloomy winter morning). But the brand isn't pushed enough, and older semi-liveries are hanging around on other aircraft looking decidedly shabby. Advertising is sporadic and ineffective : despite a very respectable trans-Atlantic service, it's severely underpromoted on both sides of the Atlantic, and the 'birds' campaign doesn't carry the weight that a major airline should (what happened to 'civil aviation' when longhaul launched?)
3) BMI-Regional cannot carry on indefinitely taking advantage of a handful of unusual money spinners (eg oil rig personnel on east coast routes). 2005 will see Eastern Airways and FlyBe nibbling away even more at both ends of the price spectrum, often with turboprops that are far more cost effective on these routes. What's more, the BMI-R brand itself is even less valued and doesn't have the independence to be a standalone competitor to T3 and BE.
4) And that bl**dy baby... not making any headway, and in some cases even preventing potential full fare BMI / BMIR traffic (see return of BMIR at EMA). No commitment, and prepared to try new bases and ditch them with equal speed. It should be sold off to the highest possible bidder and the proceeds should be invested in BMIR and mainline.
5) A route network that makes no sense. If MAN is to be a long term long haul hub, why are there not the European connections that LHR has?
... but despite all that, I can't help forgiving them. And if I had to choose when flying in Europe, I'd always go for BD over BA.
Is this an innate British thing of always favouring the fatally flawed underdog? Or is it a forgiveable weakness for an airline that has the potential to be so much more successful than it is?
Comments / therapy welcome ;-)
*j*