The important thing to remember whilst we all speculate over the future direction of bmi, is that at this time, bmibaby are not up for sale. The airline is doing pretty well for the bmi group, keeping a presence in the no-frills market place, but the airline is very vulnerable to competition, which is increasingly establishing itself in all of baby's markets. If bmi are keen to move back to being a quality, high-yielding airline, then it makes sense for them to sell bmibaby at a profit and focus on bmi's new mediumhaul and longhaul stategy at LHR and bmi regional's strategy of high yielding business routes and niche charter markets. Strategically, there would of course be some benefits to an EasyJet purchase of bmibaby. EZY have a high number of Airbuses on order that they have to put somewhere, already have experience of the B733 which would have to be used short term, and are an established brand in baby's markets. WW has shown it's possible to operate BHX/EMA alongside each other as successful bases, but I can imagine that Manchester & Cardiff would probably be closed down because of very successful bases just up the road to each of them. However, it would be a major distraction EZY could probably live without.