BMI baby in major Birmingham expansion
 

BBC have said that BMI Baby will launch 20 new routes out of Birmingham

Hi All


Well good news for BHX people, but i am a little lost here ? with BMIbaby having a base 40 mins away, which is also quite large, how can they compete with each other?
At EMA quite a few pax are from BHX area? will bmibaby harm there EMA base by doing this ?
Or is the plan to move to BHX all together ?


Take care all

Mike

Mike

This is expansion they have announced. No one has made any comments to effect NEMA. Its still Baby's main base.

Obviously the men with the big picture believe both can run without detriment to each other.

Any ideas about possible cities? Would baby have a better go at places Lite have abandoned - BFS, AMS, GVA and CDG? All except CDG have no more than one airline in competition from BHX.

20 new routes would surely make them the largest carrier at BHX overnight? They must have been given a good deal on handling fees, but even so with TOM just down the road aswell, and Flybe & Lite already well established, this all sounds like saturation to me, unless they vacate NEMA, which doesn't seem to be the plan.

With no new aircraft ordered we can expect a similar loss from other bases - most probably EMA.

Considering that WW was a defensive reaction to EZY's arrival at EMA where does this leave their reason for existing?

Copenhagen

Management have been saying for months that fleet expansion is planned. Won't ordrer new A/c I doubt but will probably lease some as has been discussed on other forums.

Any WW shrinkage at EMA will be due to FR and EZY expansion. I think the biggest threat is to MyLite at BHX.

Sounds like a head-on price war looming in the midlands

Any idea of destinations or frequencies yet?

egnxema
that only works if we get the extra EZY/FR traffic-still waiting for extra Easy, unless you know something?
(might be more info about the terminal extension soon too)

Doubt Lite will be up for a price war - however their targetting the spanish routes more. Maybe they can happily co-exist?

Wizzy - I feel that baby will virtually mirror the existing MyLite schedules to Spain. Spain has been the consistant feature for both airlines.

It is rumoured in another forum that bmi mainline will be taking over certain baby routes at MAN and the routes transfered to BHX.

I guess next week all will be revealed.

bmibaby @BHX
 

:O Oh dear Mike you really have it in for bmb don't you. What is the matter are you a 'little boy' threratened. Baby is growing they have a good product and isn't it nice to hear of NEW JOB not CUTS in our business!!!!!!!!!!!

karnak

Have they ordered some new aircraft or are they just shuffling the pack? I haven't seen any announcements.

I fly for baby from another base and since all our flights are consantly chokka full, there is no surprise that the baby needs to grow and expand. To coin a phrase "to push/expand the boundaries of it's creche"
If there's room for baby in BHX the management would be stupid not to exploit it.
As far as I know the NEMA base will stay the same size as it is.
Good luck to all applicants as there'll be a big recruitment soon.

skyclamp

As far as I'm aware, the airline is going to have a massive reshuffle over the winter season, I've heard that the NEMA base will either remain with six based aircraft, or more will arrive, being relocated from other bases.

I've also heard this rumour that bmi mainline are to take over all Manchester flying. I think this makes sense, as bmi mainline continue to expand their longhaul flying and other Star Alliance members begin flights to MAN, it does create a hub opportunity at the airport - with connections & Star's "seamless travel opportunities".

According to the company's rumor mill, I've heard that the airline will be taking either more 737-300s (there are no plans to add any -500s or -400s which we've seen at baby in the past) or possibly making a new aircraft order. Although one Fokker 100 will definately be providing back up and/or providing some services out of LBA.

Not so sure about that.
You can book flights right through the winter from the baby website from MAN to any of their destinations.

If mainline take over all MAN ops, what will happen to the baby BFS route? - will this transfer to BHD and be operated by mainline alongside the LHR service from there?

If so, would seem to make sense with baby in turn replacing the MAN - BFS with BHX - BFS.

Ohh won't the next few months be interesting.

Here is my take on this, believeable or not!

It has been known for sometime that both BMI and Flybe have never been ones to step on each others toes and I think that is continuing under what some have labelled as a 'gentlemans agreement' between Mr Bishop and Mr French.

BMI know that the MANBHD route is more popular than BFS. It is BA's last route out of BHD and Flybe want it, knowing full well that it is very profitable!, however not at the expense of a head to head with Bmibaby. Could it be that the change of routes from BMIbaby to BMI mainline could result in Flybe gaining access to MAN. This would allow Flybe to push BA out of the BHD route and expand with services to the Channel Islands, Scotland, Southampton (already announced), Exeter, etc. I think so, and in order for Flybe to gain access to MAN, as it has wanted for some time, BMIbaby has, under a 'gentlemans agreement' been given access to BHX.

If this is anywhere near accurate then I think it unlikely that BMIbaby will operate any routes in competition with Flybe. Far more likely that BMIbaby will operate the lengthy routes that Flybe simply cannot reach with their 146's (ie) AGP/ALC/MJV/BCN/NCE.....maybe I smell a codeshare agreement coming on!

This may give Flybe some more time to review the 146 debate and would provide security for both firms against the likes of Easy and Ryanair.

Just a thought, or do i suffer from an overactive imagination!

That would be pretty unusual though, wouldn't it? A codeshare between 2 lo-cost airlines.