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Old 30th Oct 2008, 16:31
  #574 (permalink)  
virginblue
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
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INKJET,

I did not mean to say that it is the most likely of all scenarios (Lufthansa has registered all kind of "...wings"-domains all over Europe). It was just a light-hearted remark as others brought up the idea of bringing bmibaby under Lufthansa's LCC umbrella.

I am convinced that the preferred option will be to dump bmi baby asap. It is pretty evident - if you look at Germanwings - that Lufthansa is only interested in its LCCs as a strategic tool. They are not really developing this kind of business at a large scale, but use it at places where it keeps others at bay and does not hurt mainline operation too much. In the UK market, there is no need for such a strategic tool for Lufthansa, I would guess.


OTOH, I am not sure about bmi regional. Regional affiliates have been used to put some pressure on Lufthansa's (direct) regional subsidiaries, so if bmi regional books look alright and they have a sound cost base, one option could be to keep it to operate the regional routes between the UK and Germany and Belgium plus a number of hand-picked high-yield routes (as bmi regional already does).
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