ATW Daily News
Friday December 11, 2009
Bmi CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said this week that he believes the "potential" exists to turn around the loss-making UK carrier and confirmed it recently sold several London Heathrow slots to address the group's liquidity shortage.
"It is no secret that bmi had a £190 million ($308.9 million) capital requirement, and we now have sufficient liquidity to get through the winter," Prock-Schauer told
ATWOnline at Brussels Airlines' Star Alliance joining event in the Belgian capital. "We completed slot sales at Heathrow," he said, while declining to reveal how many pairs were sold. "We have plenty of slots left to have a good network out of LHR." Bmi also secured a £95 million loan from Lufthansa, which became bmi's sole owner in June.
UK media speculated last month that bmi sold six pairs of takeoff and landing slots to Swiss International Air Lines for around £60 million, allowing LX to commence a six-times-daily Geneva-LHR service on Jan. 10. A Star airline CEO who requested anonymity told this website that all recent bmi slot sales were conducted with Lufthansa Group airlines and Star members.
Regarding bmi's restructuring, Prock-Schauer said, "The target is to achieve breakeven in 2011. Once the group is back to profitability, all options are open. But now the focus is on restructuring." He promised that for the moment the group will retain the current three airlines--bmi regional, bmi mainline and bmibaby. The latter two recently announced significant restructuring plans.