bmibaby are treading the fine balance between being a low-cost airline and just plain cheap. The problem is many people still want to think of the company as bmi, so the service they're receiving is well below par - that's simply the fault of poor marketing signals being sent out by the company. Add that the last month we've been plagued by tech problems and late aircraft delivery, the constant ways the airline manages to find ways to gouge that last penny out of the customers and an unimaginative route network with no major competitive advantages - it's not hard to see why bmibaby are losing a lot of ground to Ryanair at EMA.
I still think that by serving primary airports, having assigned seats and a generally more selective recruitment programme adds to a much nicer ambience at bmibaby - but it won't be enough to keep Ryanair from circling like the buzzard that they are.