are bmi in it for the longhaul?

[crazy idea]

I have been reading with interest some of the many comments made about bmi in the last few weeks. At the same time longhaul seems to be the talk of all the other airlines, so is this the direction bmi should go in?

I see they do some bits from Manchester to the Caribbean, LAs Vegas and Chicago, plus Mumbai and Riyadh from Heathrow - and just announced Jeddah and Doha (although in conjunction with Qatar I think). And as usual there is the talk about LHR-US if it opens up.

So as everyone seems to think how bmi should be run (which I'm sure their board must find quite amusing), I thought I would ask people whether they think bmi should do longhaul for real, and if so what markets they should go in to make it work - should they compete with the big guys in Hong Kong and New York, or look at other opportunities? (Or even for that reason are there any markets Virgin should look at or BA which they don't do?)

I don't know what their plans are (I used to work for them a long time ago but only in an airport role, and left as they started Washington and Chicago from Manchester - I've done my time!) or if they will even develop longhaul, or what aircraft it would be, but lets try to make this productive instead of just having a go at everything they do - if people say that they don't know how to manage it then lets see what everyone else thinks they should do going forward.

And lets focus on what will make money (if there are any markets left for them which will) - everyone knows that Washington had a lot of people on board but they never made a penny proft from it (or so people still on the inside tell me!).

Cheers
crazy idea

[HZ123]

Frankly, it is goimg to be very dificult in the future to make any monies. With the vastly expanding airline groups of the mifddle and far east offering low fares and excellent service it may be that BMI have left it too late to go big on the longhaul market. The introduction of the A380 by the likes of Emirates who are also making the mid east a hub will depress the US and Euro airlines incomes. The get rich quick routes will be the former soviet countrys that still have fares fixed by their CAA eqiuvalent. WE may expect to see growth in Aussie / NZ and CAnada but much of this will be leisure.

[jamesbrownontheroad]

The get rich quick routes will be the former soviet countries that still have fares fixed by their CAA eqiuvalent.

I have dim and hazy memories of BD getting all the paperwork sorted for LHR -> Moscow, but it was never taken up... I'm guessing because it would have been a hard route to make money out of, but it wouldn't surprise me if they gave it a shot (with an Embraer out of NWI on Thursdays and Sundays, arf arf).

*j*

[goldeneye]

I have dim and hazy memories of BD getting all the paperwork sorted for LHR -> Moscow, but it was never taken up... I'm guessing because it would have been a hard route to make money out of, but it wouldn't surprise me if they gave it a shot (with an Embraer out of NWI on Thursdays and Sundays, arf arf).

Yeh i remember this too, Virgin was awarded the licenece to operate to Moscow, but BMI made such a fuss it was taken from Virgin and given to BMI - but guess what still no Moscow flights.

BMI should merge with Virgin and be a better rival to BA

[Lord Toofouright]

I bet there's one route that BMI could make a shed load of cash from, IF they could get rights to it, and that's MAN-Narita.
This region ( Manchester & the NW), has always been crying out for a link with Japan, both frieght and pax. Every flight from Heathrow is usually overbooked most of the year, so I'm sure that overflow from there could be utilised to fill every flight. Combine that with the excellent service levels on BMI and they would become a very respected carrier by the business and tourist community.

[no, no, no]

bmi did want to do Moscow from what I recall and got the UK licence to do it - but the issue was the Russians - they only designated two carriers, and they are BA and VS as both us Russia for overflights.

So the Russians said yes to Virgin flying to Moscow, but the UK said yes to bmi - hence why no-one started.

I think they are still trying to get that changed

[Railgun]

Every flight from Heathrow is usually overbooked

No they are not.

[Mr @ Spotty M]

Anyone notice BMI have applied to the CAA to wet lease one A330-302 from 26th March 06 for one year.
Also Wet lease one B767-300 from 21st April 06 to 1st April 07.

[airhumberside]

The A330 is to start a LHR-Doha route. The below is from a bmi press release last week

bmi will also commence a daily service to Doha from Heathrow in the Summer of 2006. The service will commence on 26 March and, subject to government approval, will be operated under a wet lease agreement with Qatar Airways. At the same time bmi's existing codeshare agrement with Qatar Airways will be expanded to allow bmi to sell Qatar Airways flights from Heathrow to Doha under bmi's flight code. This will further consolidate the presence of bmi at both Heathrow and in the Gulf region and mark another major step in the global reach of the airline.

[ALLDAYDELI]

Interesting how the A330 will be Qatari reg'd (A7), the B763 coming from Air Excel Holland (PH- regd)

[Mr @ Spotty M]

ALLDAYDELI
That's because the aicraft are on a wet lease.

[Waveman]

Any idea how BMI regional are doing? Considering a job with them. Thanks.

[initial]

With BMI Codesharing on Heathrow to Doha route with Qatar, would it not also make sense for them to share on Manchester to Doha route also.

The timings of the early Qatar flights would make it ideal as they could sell ORD-MAN-DOH tickets with only a short stop at MAN.

Terminal change would be needed though

[ALLDAYDELI]

SpottyM, I know the wet lease conecpt. it was just "interesting" which carriers they were coming from...

[Mr @ Spotty M]

ALLDAYDELI
A7-AEA a A330-302 from Qatar & PH-MCV a B767-31A from Arkefly (TUI group).