Lavdumper,
re your comment about Virgin Hooking up with BMI. I belive this was mooted a few years back.Most people agreed that a combined operation would be good for both as VS would gain the feeder routes into LHR and BM would have a long haul operation out of same,which would scare the p*** out of BA. However the whole thing came to naught as the two head honchos were reputably unable to see eye to eye.
BMI now have their own Longhaul, albeit out of Manchester and are looking to expand into the far east,putting them in direct competition with VS. VS are now part owned by Singapore airlines,so it is dificult to see a meger happening. The only common thread is the Star Alliance which includes BMI and SQ (although not VS at least yet.)
Stranger things have happened however.
As far as working for them, I used to work for BMI (when it was plain old BM) and now work for VS.BM is fine if you live or can afford to live in the Southeast and enjoy 4 sector days out of LHR. Great bunch of guys and gals, good money but hard work and a lot of roster disruption.Reading other threads on Easy and Ryan, they seem to suffer the same.Given the choice I would plump for BMI.They are a big ,long established company,they will be around for a long time,command is fairly quick if you have more than 3000hrs and they have one of the few final salary pensions left.The flying is great experience and if you get fed up you can always come to Virgin!.