BMI losses= £650 million over 4 years?

[Pull what]

£650 million losses over 4 years must make BMI the the UKs most unsuccessful airline ever!

Bid target BMI on course for £145m losses - Telegraph

[40&80]

As Cameron says...WE are all in this together.
Well they write Lord Glendonbrook trousered millions....good for him...but it looks bad for the employees....unless they are picked up by BA or whatever BA calls itself this week.
We certainly were/are all in this together.

[Capetonian]

A great shame, but I see the loads on some of their flights. 10%, 15%, 25% ........ and that's both outward and return so it's not even justified by saying one leg is full.

[Mr A Tis]

Has anyone seen any comments from Mr Turner or Mr Bishop? I would be interested to hear their views on the subject.

[Pull what]

I should think Bishop hasnt stopped laughing yet! Full marks for pulling off sellimg his share to Lufthansa when it was worth top dollar and making them pay up whan it was worth nothing

[racedo]

Ouch to that level of losses.

[TCX69]

£650 million losses over 4 years must make bmi the the UKs most unsuccessful airline ever!

I would hardly say bmi was unsuccessful! To of being around for so long they obviously did something right. Yes unlucky in regards to fuel prices (like everyone else), Middle Eastern destinations, bad decision making at times & yes they've lost hell of a lot of money. I wouldn't exactly say they were unsuccessful though.

NOW Airlines & UK International Airlines springs to mind!

[TSR2]

I wouldn't exactly say they were unsuccessful though.

With a £650 million loss over 4 years, I wouldn't exactly class that as successful either.

[G-AWZK]

Add to that the £340 million purchase price and Lufthansa has pissed around a billion quid against a wall.

Frightening, really.

[LD12986]

I suspect they'll have to write off the £248m loan when they sell it as well.

[stormin norman]

With such bad figures and recent bad press it looks like the brand itsself is mortally wounded.

What IAG will take out (apart from the slots) is difficult to see but any priority for any buyer must surely be avoiding any outstanding financial liabilites.

Its beginning to look very messy.

[JSCL]

I still fail to see why BMI can't return to it's home territory of the midlands. I personally think that if they had the guts and put aside a nice marketing pot - Birmingham airport could become a good hub-spoke airport. People travel to Amsterdam for the sake of flying to the USA or the opposite direction. If they're going through a flights website or agent, BMI would be listed naturally and BMI could price themselves more effective than say going EDI>>AMS>>JFK - than BMI could possibly handle on EDI>>BHX>>JFK.

That's my personal view on what should be done with BMI. Big market in Birmingham anyway, albeit not as big as the London market, and there's big potential to develop there. If you're bookable through the systems, it has a fighting chance of working.

[Skipness One Echo]

I still fail to see why BMI can't return to it's home territory of the midlands.

I can, it's because you get the next bit wrong when you say

Birmingham airport could become a good hub-spoke airport.

You're suggesting that BMI take considerable losses at least for 2-3 years in a smaller marginal market too close to London. When you say

BMI could price themselves more effective than say going EDI>>AMS>>JFK - than BMI could possibly handle on EDI>>BHX>>JFK.

they couldn't. Flying direct means charging a premium, not less, besides which they neither have the fleet or economies of scale to compete effectively with KLM asnd LH. That might mean that where once BD flew 707s succesfully over the summer to JFK and YYZ, they stopped when winter came. This would not be an option today and during the winter they'd be flying fresh air across the pond unless there was a generous code share with a STAR partner in the US. Given CO/UA would be keen to fill their own BHX flight, there's little reason for them to help.

[Capetonian]

BMI's problem as I see it has been that it never clearly identified itself or its market. Whatever the marketing whizzkids say, whatever labels they stick on, it's British Midland in peoples' minds and I suspect that is why they've never been very successful at LHR, despite being a brilliant airline. It was on another thread regarding 'Heathwick' that I suggested that Birmingham would make an outstanding hub alternative to a saturated Heathrow, and a couple of other views people seemed to support that.

It would require cooperation from Star Alliance/codeshare partners to support this strategy but medium to long term it could work. However it's too late now.

[pee]

So who actually pays the piper? Lufthansa as the owner, presumably? If so, why would they want to continue such a sponsorship?

[ian_h1]

Slightly tongue in cheek and without wishing to go wildly OT but surely Capetonian if its BRITISH Midland this would make Manchester the home of your suggested Hub and Spoke arrangement as Birmingham is the English Midlands

Still whatever now transpires good luck and thank-you to all the dedicated caring humane employees bmi employ - I was on the receiving end of your kindness once (ahem twice) when I messed up.

I never forget you did more than I could have dreamed have remained loyal as a result and encouraged as many people as I could to use you. The personal touch is not something we see much of anymore.

[N707ZS]

Should they have stuck to the internal market that they used to run in the 80s and 90s. Leeds, DTVA, Liverpool to Heathrow?

[commit aviation]

...probably not. The train service has improved markedly (in frequency at least!) & a 4 times a day service would struggle to survive against the half hourly service East Coast now runs from Leeds. LPL / MME may not have as good a rail network but with increased pressure on yields from the rail companies I fear bmi (or any other carrier come to that) would have met the same fate.
If you stand still in todays world, you move backwards. You have to innovate / develop (add business speak expression of choice). Whilst I believe bmi tried to do this, life (in terms of the European economy & middle eastern political instability) conspired against them.
Bottom line: sh*t sometimes happens & sadly for bmi / LH & the great team that work there it certainly appears to have done so - several times over.

[racedo]

Sadly BMI is another example of the market moving on and the providers not really knowing what to do.

[6chimes]

If you're using these figures to judge bmi, then you are totally naive.

If you're suggesting bmi has been a failure at LHR, you're an idiot.

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