Actually, bmi have been gaining experience on flying to politically volatile areas with the very successful Riyadh & Jeddah routes. They could make the former BMED services work by not having to pay BA for the franchise agreements, but also with a lower cost base.
Air France have been doing this with their Dedicate service whereby the timetables, frequencies, service levels and comfort on Dedicate flights match all the usual Air France long-haul standards. The flights are operated using 82-seat Airbus A319s offering l'Espace Affaires (business) and Tempo (economy) cabins, which seems to be what bmi/BMED have with their A320s, and can carve out a more successful, profitable niche than flying up/down to Scotland, competing with BA, easyJet and the trains.