do you seriously think anyone else will buy a BMI full of militant pilots? Do you seriously think Willy will sell a BMI which has taken over some longhaul routes? He needs the vehicle as much to put pressure on his other two airlines
Yes i do. Connect was full of 'militants' as you put it (actually just people being shafted, nothing militant in it really, same goes for bmi) and yet BE gobbled them up(ok really good seat compensation deal involved to make it happen). It was a case of take it or leave it for the staff. With dan air, ba took the bits it wanted and disgarded the rest. If the new restructuring doesnt work out, i see more sell offs in the future to prevent cashflow problems(see TCX).
The integration of bmi solves a fleet replacement issue for SH@Gatwick. The assests could be sent to the 'little grass strip' as it is so often refered to, and the bucket and spade LH can move to LHR where new slots just opened up. Combined with new LH assests to serve emerging markets, as was previously mentioned as an IAG/BA intention, the slot pairs can be allocated to LH growth. As for SH feed into LH, if only 36% is transfer traffic on SH why not
expand codesharing and cut overheads associated with a full SH product?
Perhaps in time its full circle and back to BOAC and BEA??
