Guys - let's look at this through business and money eyes.
Baby has no value to any other airline:
- It has a brand that will need to be changed (can't see them being bmi anything, and calling it 'baby' will be a nightmare in brand protection terms);
- It has relatively old, leased 733s and 735s, and the market is awash with them;
- It has few useful slots - and let's face it, most of the airports it operates to would soon find room for someone else in the current climate;
- It has an AOC, which is nice, but any airline that looks to buy them will already have one.
Baby has four options:
- stay where it is (as long as LH want it, which doesn't seem to be long!)
- go it alone (tough in this market, and it will need unpicking from bmi - it is NOT a standalone business right now)
- sell itself for a BI/MBO
- admit defeat and close it.
If I were LH/bmi - I'd go for Option 3.
TA