PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - BMed
Thread: BMed
View Single Post
Old 24th Jan 2007, 21:10
  #159 (permalink)  
Flightrider
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 1,476
Received 4 Likes on 3 Posts
Sorry to see the current woes.

BMed's biggest problem is that the aircraft it flies is completely unsuited for its route network.

The limited range of the Airbuses compared to a route network of Khartoum, Addis, Almaty etc means that they end up doing so many double-drop sectors which are really expensive, particularly when landing/handling fees are very high at airports like Ekaterinburg through which these flights stage.

If someone had taken the decision several years ago to equip with 757s (whilst they still could) instead of A320/321s, I suspect BMed would be a very different airline today. It could go direct to every point and have a more competitive product; cut costs; get all of the bags on board (e.g. Tehran-Heathrow with an A321 and six tonnes of bags still in Tehran) and probably tackle some routes which presently would be unviable.

BMed made good money when times were good; but the current issues indicate that the business model isn't robust enough to stand up to a set of circumstances which, by anyone's definition, could be described as unfortunate and bloody unlucky.

Fleet swap between the BA 757s and BMed A320/321s anyone?
Flightrider is offline