Flying Frog, this is not unfair protection (well, not in my view). Bmi had cooked up a deal with Qatar Airways which was unprecedented and basically saw bmi whoring traffic rights available to UK carriers around for cash.
A short precis of the deal:
Qatar Airways wanted to grow at LHR but couldn't get slots.
QR was also using the full quota of flights available under the UK/Qatar bilateral for Qatari carriers
bmi tottered along and offered to sell Qatar a set of Heathrow slots and provide some of the UK quota of flights to enable QR to launch the extra service
To do so, it required permission from the UK government to wet-lease the QR A330
UK government decided (whether after representations from BA or not) that it did not like the idea of rights that it had negotiated for UK carriers being handed over for cash to foreign carriers. After all, if everyone did this, there would be no point in having air services agreements.
Fair play. It was an idea which was pushing the boundaries, and bmi have had a governmental whack on the nose for their troubles. The only thing which should come as a surprise to no-one is that the idea was formulated by the chaps at Qatar rather than the dullards of Donington Hall.
bmi is a business with no direction, hugely overstaffed HQ, a CEO who allegedly seems to be spending more of his time cruising crew rooms than running the company and a set of uninspired, uninspiring management. It cannot carry on like this. The schoolboy discussions and idle speculation about wanting to see bmi disappear have no place on a mature discussion forum, but it is fair to say that they desperately need to do something - and fast - to stop the rot.