SAS & Luffty holding has been a mixed blessing, but right now it acts as a brake on all of the groups activities
Baby is capped at 16 aircraft and does not operate any flights to German or Scandic destinations
Regional would love to do Munich out of Leeds and EDI and has the slots, but is blocked by Luffty likewise SAS blocked CPH out of LBA.
The revenue and costs share on LHR routes to Germany and Scandic countries was a good deal (when you could get away with charging £800.00 return for Y class) but Luffty and SAS have far higher cost bases than bmi, in any event the deal that bmi had in terms of support ends this spring, which is why the blue sky project was so important.
I hear that airframe No 4 on the 330 fleet will be the one that was diverted to Emirates post 9/11 and that it will be re fitted with the "the Bussiness" seats in rows 1 to 4, these seats are still in storage in a bmi hangar i am told
This will then do the India routes from LHR
Bish holds the extra share so given that bmi is a private company he can do much as he pleases. he is still youngish for an airline chairman and in good health. There are no hiers to his fortune so i can\'t see any reason why he would wan\'t to get out now. the LHR slots are worth far more than the company and in another 10 years we might see another runway at LHR which would change the picture as would a new open skies deal that (Queen Mandelson ex of Hartlepool) is working on as EU transport minister.
VS would love to merge and are keener to do so than bmi so any deal will have to protect SMB interests and wishes (these might not be the same as the pilots that said!!)
Yes there are problems in bmi, but they have survied with out a penny of state aid, weren\'t given Concorde for free and compared to the dosh that Sebena, Air france & others have had, then they(bmi) have provided a good level of service for joe public and a lot of pilots for very many years, but it is time to move on.
Cheers
Burt
Last edited by INKJET; 27th Jan 2005 at 09:40.