Hang on a minute.
My sympathies lie with the low cost sector here. It is they who are growing the business and generating the traffic.
BMI as the 2nd largest carrier is getting a very easy ride on this forum. Take the same situation and apply it to BA and I think there would be outright condemnation on these pages.
e.g. Tomorrow BA announce its going to start a new low cost division called Baby BA at Gatwick and they have 8 737's in the paintshop as we speak. They announce that Baby BA is going to fly 90% of the same routes that easyJet have announced they will start flying in 2 months time.
Every man Jack here would be up in arms accusing BA of trying to drive easyJet out of Gatwick. People would start banging on about putting Laker and Danair out of business and point knowing fingers at the Virgin dirty tricks fiasco.
And yet when the number two scheduled airline and the number two low cost airline in the UK go through exactly the same scenario people are slow to decry it.
Baby BMI should lose money for a good few years if it really is a new enterprise. All airlines do up to and including SouthWest when they start up. So what we have here is old Michael Bish willing to throw money away for a couple of years to drive out Go. And don't try and say that this hasty painting up of two surplus 737's is part of some grand strategic move by BMI. As their previous recent statement made clear they have no intention of becoming a low cost airline.
Go certainly has a much much stronger brand than Baby BMI or whatever they will be called. I'm sure Sir Bishop has deep pockets. He will need them.
PS