Whilst we are on the subject . . .

Would they have any requirement for part a part time Captain on a 50% roster?

Just to comment on the Bmi Baby delays and cancellations over the bank holiday period i know it wasnt very good PR but six aircraft from the fleet went tech over the holiday with ZJ requiring a complete engine change, a pilot got took sick at very last minute which resulted in stand by crew having to position up from LHR. It wasnt helped with the start of the new flights from Gatwick which i believe both had delays not good on the first day of service but unavoidable.
We tried to counter the delay by bringing in Bmi Fokker 100s and chartering Titan aircraft to catch up with the delays that helped a little but then had the knock on effect with the delays and crew rest time.
There is a slight lack of flightdeck crew but that is getting better all the time and should be sorted very soon.:D

I always understood that a key part of the CAAs oversight of AOCs was to ensure that companies had adequate resources to handle their schedules and that anyone who showed they could not organise themselves properly was come down on very heavily and very quickly indeed.

So just what are the CAA doing about BMI Baby, following this weekend, the "round Britain tour" of a few weeks ago, and other events. They are very well placed to distinguish between external misfortunes such as weather and those internal to the airline. How many CAA inspectors are going through the Baby technical and ops departments today with a fine tooth comb (and maybe even a little useful advice) ?

On a related matter, Ryanair's 737-200s, secondhand and old, have always seemed to operate astoundingly reliably on extremely intensive rosters. How is it that BMI Baby, with aircraft a generation newer, seem to get into such messes with so many tech issues happening simultaneously to their fleet ?

Perhaps the aircraft have been around for a while and bmi Baby Skippers are being conscientous on technical matters ?

All i can hope is that bmi do expand long haul out of MAN. I have flow with them to ORD and from IAD with them, best flights ever to the US. I really support bmi long-haul out of MAN because they have concentrated long-haul ops out of MAN. OK theymight of have much choice due to Bermuda II, but they are ready to expand out of there. Great news, let's hope it's true i say!

Be under no illusion - this company is struggling BIG TIME. They are losing money and being held up by the mainline operation. With Ryanair moving into EMA the writing is surely on the wall.

I think Bmi Baby have found their niche in the market with the holiday/ second home business the spanish and french flights are generally good yields but we are finding it hard sometimes at ema to compete with Easyjet on the Scottish routes although this should improve with EZY dropping Glasgow flights soon and now with Ryanair on the Dublin which midweek has never been a great performer except at weekends with stag n hen parties but the others are generally good.
I can't see Ryanair/ rumoured easyjet expansion having too much impact on Baby at ema as i think you will find they are going to concentrate on the more city break/business flights with Baby concentrating on the leisure/sunshine market.

Anybody know what the loads are like on the Toronto flights? It is good to see all three 330s sat at the gates early in the morning at MAN.

60 empty seats from ALC in May to Manchester... single digit domestic service passenger numbers..... sounds like WW have their own problems to worry about. Perhaps WW have too many bases and are spreading themselves too thinly accross the UK. (EMA, CWL, MAN, MME, LGW)

WW is still a loss making airline - Michael Bishop has said so. However, their costs are at the same level as EasyJet.

I hear that the Gatwick launch hasn't gone as well as expected - especially to PRG, and this may be replaced by a MAD rotation when BD drop the route ex LHR in October.

I have heard of the grapevine that from the Winter bmibaby will do LGW-Knock. I think bmibaby can find a place in the market at LGW by offering niche services and i hear the LGW-Cork route is doing very well.

:oh: :uhoh: If this is true then someone should really tell revenue management since flights are still showing bookable in Galileo.

Shame if it happened, hardly surprising (yields are not spectacular on LHR-MAD and loads are surprisingly crap) but it does raise further questions about BD's schizophrenic route strategy. Dropping MAD to once daily was a silly move if you're in the market for business travellers. Why not hand the route over to JK, who could make a much better job and offer connections to other Spanish destinations (seamless JK/BD ticketing is very hard to find).

Yes i have also heard LGW- Knock is being looked into for winter at present as the LGW-Cork route is performing so well.
The Ema-Knock route is not doing to well at present but that will improve shortly when people start going on there holidays to Ireland.
I've not heard about a Madrid ex LGW rotation but you never know.
With regards the CAA looking into Babys AOC it was just was just by chance that all those aircraft decided to go tech over the bank holiday.

btw, Anyone know how the baby flights out of MME are doing, I know BFS isn't doing well at all, but how about the likes of ALC, AGP, PMI, PRG etc

Thanks
mmeteesside
MME Movements

If BMi are serious about TA from MAN maybe they should look at replacing baby with mainline on feeder routes. Baby does ORK-MAN and mainline does MAN-YYZ but I'm damned if I'm hauling 32kg bags to check in at Manch :D

For routes like LGW I can see the point but LHR and MAN should be mainline only for feeder traffic.

I worked in the airline business for decades and we never had to cancel flights because of the shortage of crews. It is the worst possible reason and never believed by passengers. Lack of pasengers is a much more likely reason.

Some points to consider:

1. Easyjet cancelled several flights as the Insurance Certificates weren't on the aircraft.

2. Easyjet have cut the number of routes from NEMA.

3. Easyjet have enormous loans to pay for their new aircraft, with interest rates rising - worldwide!

4. Eayjet was named on BBC1's watchdog as not having IATA protection for it's passengers.

5. Easyjet has lost it's case inthe European court over passenger compensation (It is appealing).

Sir Michael Bishop did not say that Baby was making a loss but that BMI Group was making a loss. He actually said that Baby had reduced the group's overall loss.

BMI Baby in a mess?....More like a sticky Orange mess to me!

I see BmiBaby has just finished 2nd best uk low cost airline behind Jet2 and overall in europe which is quite good so passengers must generally be very happy with the service.:O

alterego,

you haven't got a :mad: clue about the airline business.

I have to agree with CAP54.

To refute alterego's EZY points...

1. Yes, a cock-up was made. But it was discovered quickly, and the effects were only felt for one day.
2. EZY are flying the same number of routes from NEMA, just different destinations. Granted there are fewer movements, but the sectors are longer.
3. Almost everyone borrows to buy aeroplanes because they are expensive, and you earn revenue from them by using them, not before they are delivered. Finance will have been arranged at fixed rates, and now's not a bad time to obtain fixed rates.
4. Watchdog is a disgrace to the BBC. They get so many things wrong. EZY's compensation is a lot better than many airlines. Just ask the pax due to fly with Duo or JetGreen.
5. The European legislation is manifestly unfair to loco airlines. The EU has fixed compensation at levels that are often in excess of ticket prices. EZY (I believe in concert with others) is appealing against this example of EU stupidity. But the European Court is hardly independent, is it?? I guess EZY will appeal.

Alterego



Well you have not got your facts right at all about Easyjet at EMA, firstly they have not losty any routes at all, we have cancelled the Gla and BCN, but instead we have Rome and Cologne, the glasgow and barcelona finish on 08.06.04 and the new routes start 09.06.04.
Easyjet as a company are performing very well in the uk and the rest of europe, at EMA our loads are very high all the time...
BMIbaby loads are very low, i watched an aircraft yesterday being loaded up and i counted 16 passengers on it, walking to the plane, the despatcher says they are like that all the time.
I am not anti bmibaby at all, all we are saying is , that they are struggling.