Originally Posted by
FougaMagister
Re.
baby not being able to afford new aircraft: I find it odd that
bmi can buy 45 A319/320/321/330, that
Air Berlin can afford 60 A320s,
flybe can finance 41 Dash8Q-400s and 14 E195s, but that
baby has to make do with leasing second-hand 737-300s and has to keep the lower-rated, higher seat-mile cost 737-500s. Granted, they are good planes, but as they get older, reliability goes down and running costs go up. Remember that
baby flight crew are already rated on 737NGs...
Cheers
Of course I completely agree with you that it's insane bmi and Lufthansa have not realised the huge potential that bmibaby or bmi regional have from the merger of flybe and BA Connect, especially when you see Lufthansa's own low-cost airline Germanwings growing from strength to strength. bmi did have an EMB-190 demonstrator at EMA towards the end of the summer which was apparently being looked into for either baby or regional, but no further information from that demonstration has been forthcoming. Indeed, the 737-300 and to a further extent the 735s are not the most efficient aircraft compared to what the competition is flying, however following big orders from Southwest and Air Berlin, there doesn't appear to be much room on the 737-700 production line for brand new examples, and I don't think baby have any interest in flying Airbus equipment. I can see the 733s being around for a couple of years yet, though it's a shame that either more of these aircraft, or indeed new ones, cannot be sourced quickly to make the best of this current situation.