BMI
Join Date: Jun 2007
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The headline price for the sale of £172.5 million allows IAG to gain a lot of slots for not a lot of money, but they are also taking on a loss making outfit and a large pension debt.
Now you have BA, still a good show with a good team, and BMI, things like crew standards still good but some wacky scheduling, ridiculously small aircraft (the Embraers) in use, silly economised catering, and despite this many recent flights I have taken at 25-50% load factors, which when you see it on morning peak services you know something is badly wrong with the sales and marketing side.
To give an example of the loss of service standards, a BMI flight returning from Aberdeen to Heathrow in the evening a short while ago, when the A319 was still in use. Surprised when checking in to be placed in a middle seat between two others "because its full". Aircraft turned out to be a substitute by one of the Middle-East configured A320s, with a very large Business Class section up front that nobody was allowed to sit in on this economy-only domestic flight. Being all sent to the back, for Weight & Balance reasons the rear rows were not permitted either, so the total load (about 42 of us) were squished into the first seven economy rows, while the rest of the aircraft front and rear could be seen to be completely empty.
Anyway, with much transfer traffic at Heathrow for both, the "profitability" depends more than anything else on how the accountants behind the scenes do the revenue attribution for through fares between the two sectors. Being a bit of a beancounter myself I can demonstrate examples of where the books have been cooked (or not) to show either considerable profitability or extreme loss. For BA it doesn't make any difference to the overall cash taken, just an internal reporting point, but for BMI, where Star Alliance long-haul partners grab the lions share of the money, it certainly does.
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Not unless you spend all your Diamond Club miles on some juicy redemptions before then Businesstraveler, which is what I'm planning. I'm going to miss both miles & cash redemptions and C class redemptions across the *A at 1.5 x the cost of Y 
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2008
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As stated by BA CEO today:
My objective is for bmi to be integrated within British Airways’ operations.
Discuss.....
Lights blue touch-paper and retires a safe distance.
My objective is for bmi to be integrated within British Airways’ operations.
Discuss.....
Lights blue touch-paper and retires a safe distance.
I understand BALPA has been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to secure integration rather than having a separate equivalent of Iberia Express.
Now, I wonder whether another BA workgroup has learned the lessons of the past couple of years that collectively sticking your fingers in your ears when change is coming over the horizon and then throwing your toys out of the pram when the rest of the world carries on without you doesn't work? Probably not.
Join Date: Aug 2007
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The reason that IAG will pay less money if Regional and Baby are part of the deal is the cost of closing them down which IAG will probably do immediately if they are in that position.
Chieftan o'the Pudden Race
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Rougueg
Due diligence was completed at the end of November, which was on schedule. I cant comment on what has been happening behind the scenes (mainly because I don't know!) but my understanding is that Granite are still on track to have things sorted out by end December, or first week in January. With deals like this the devil is always in the detail.
Due diligence was completed at the end of November, which was on schedule. I cant comment on what has been happening behind the scenes (mainly because I don't know!) but my understanding is that Granite are still on track to have things sorted out by end December, or first week in January. With deals like this the devil is always in the detail.
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Quote:
There is no business case for the BMI brand surviving, none at all. LHR-BHD / DUB will have the option to be served via Aer Lingus' existing DUB and BFS services, freeing up slots for long haul, as the model states. BA could not make Northern Ireland pay and if anything it's less likely to work now.
There is no business case for the BMI brand surviving, none at all. LHR-BHD / DUB will have the option to be served via Aer Lingus' existing DUB and BFS services, freeing up slots for long haul, as the model states. BA could not make Northern Ireland pay and if anything it's less likely to work now.
I can't speak for Dublin but I don't see how three daily flights from Belfast to a totally separate terminal at Heathrow will benefit BA. That won't even be enough capacity to support the traffic terminating in London if BD weren't around.
As you guys know, Dublin should be considered a serious challenger to LHR for Northern Irish travellers with Etihad (Emirates adding soon) providing 1 stop services to many destinations east/southish of the UAE and EI/UA/DL/AA all operating westbound providing 1 stop to many destinations in the America's and Eastern Pacific region. If BA think there are enough £'s to be made, they will most likely want their 'brand' operating in Ireland but probably in co-operation with EI.
Short to medium term they will need to retain the majority of the BD A32X aircraft to fill slots. BA currently have no new long haul aircraft arriving until 2013 at the earliest and that is unlikely to change given their aircraft selections. Without minimising the amount of time the current long haul fleet spends on the ground, they don't have immediate capacity to switch BD slots to longer routes and even even if they did, are time limited as to where they could deploy those free'd aircraft without adversely affecting current routes. Perhaps their mates down under could lend them at a cheap price some of the 767's they are looking rid of to plug a gap? When the changes eventually happen I'd imagine the first bmi domestics to be majorly shook up will be MAN and EDI where BA/BD are currently competing.
AC
Ps. No idea how this happened but e t i h a d is being changed to Teahid when I press submit and it isn't an autocorrect at this end!
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I can't speak for Dublin but I don't see how three daily flights from Belfast to a totally separate terminal at Heathrow will benefit BA. That won't even be enough capacity to support the traffic terminating in London if BD weren't around
EI-BUD
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BA currently have no new long haul aircraft arriving until 2013 at the earliest and that is unlikely to change given their aircraft selections.
Join Date: Jun 2011
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Aer lingus have aircraft but not enough to increase both belfast and dublin to fil the gap by bmi. Is it possible that ba may take belfast and ei use there belfast slots at dublin
Paxing All Over The World
mvvdatabase
Branson/VS must complain - because that's their job. If the situation were reversed, then IAG would be doing the complaining.
As for a plan? In the past 25 years (since privatisation) the plan has been:
Branson will always moan about how unfair things are but I would rather take my chances with IAG, at least they might have some sort of a plan that sees a future for bmi and at least some of its staff.
As for a plan? In the past 25 years (since privatisation) the plan has been:
- Buy another airline
- Asset strip
- Dump them
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Belfast and Dublin
Jobs to go as BA buys BMI - European, Business - Independent.ie
BMI operates a daily Dublin-London schedule. Willie Walsh said he will maintain Belfast-Heathrow route and will look at the scale of the Dublin –London flight schedule once they take control of the company.
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BMI are not fantastic and have not been so since the rebrand where "BMI" was not an acronym and "didn't stand for anything". A truer word was seldom spoken....
For sure other airlines control more than 56% of slots at their home base, that doesn't make it healthy. The national carrier in its own country invariably has a dominance which leads to the high handed and arrogant attitude that makes it enemies in its own country. The plus side to that is if I fly SAA out of JNB and they have a tech delay I know they are more likely to find a quick solution than another carrier.
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Probably a bit late in the day but does anyone else think Eastern Airways would have been a good fit? They were born themselves out of British Airways's regional operation and seem to offer a similar service with good punctuality.
If we assume the merger goes ahead unhindered by competition authorities, presumably IAG will be keen to consolidate some short haul flying and use the spare slots to expand long haul - which means a need for something with range.
How many aircraft can BA + Iberia call on from storage in the next 12 months to service this for a few years until Airbus / Boeing can supply some new metal ? Are the aircraft in storage too decrepit for profitable use ?
Alternatively is sourcing aircraft from other Oneworld airlines - or even leasing firms a credible option ?
How many aircraft can BA + Iberia call on from storage in the next 12 months to service this for a few years until Airbus / Boeing can supply some new metal ? Are the aircraft in storage too decrepit for profitable use ?
Alternatively is sourcing aircraft from other Oneworld airlines - or even leasing firms a credible option ?
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 22nd Dec 2011 at 18:02.