"All that glisters..."

If there's one think that bmi are it's overly cautious when it comes to expanding and developing routes.

New bmi long haul product ...
 

See this from Flight:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...my-cabins.html

Looks very good, particularly the Premium J Class, but I can't help thinking that FI has confused some of the J and Premium Economy class seating photos; as nice as it would be, 2+2+2 and lie flat beds seems a bit much?

Possibly an error on FI's part. If not, someone give me the bmi reservations number!

No mistake, the Premium Economy seats are the old Business seats, making both cabins a great product. And yes, both 2+2+2.

The article reads fine, but they have used incorrect photos for Premium Economy with one exception. The PE seats are the old business class seats. Massive amounts of space for PE, but certainly not flat beds!

Turning from 'plane spotting and interior design to the bigger picture, can somebody please explain how they see the strategy as it stands at the moment?

I thought that part of the "Grand Plan" related to Open Skies, the challenge of healthy competition, the development of a profitable long haul operation etc. I guess that my interpretation was incorrect.

Have bmi not now abandoned ("delayed") such plans and simply taken on a loss-making concern and duplicated its operation? Such duplication will lead to a corresponding duplication of the losses, also, will it not? If that suggestion is an over-simplification, as I'm more than willing to concede, then what is the plan? Anybody know?

Much as I disagree with your opinions about bmi on some other threads you have got this about right I would say. If transatlantic out of LHR ever happens I will eat my hat. The few BMED routes that we could really clean up on are crying out for a larger, longer range aircraft, the 320/1 is just not up to the job. As the song says "there may be trouble ahead"

BMEDFO, I couldn't agree more. Only last week I was grilling Nigel Turner about some of our popular routes (THR, AMM and BEY) and he said the A330 would definitely be used for them... how things can change in seven days! Hopefully operating KRT from BEY will see some extra revenue, but we shall see.

What if he already knew about the "posponement" of the 330 order and was still sure that the 330's would be used?

A330 ops
 

I'm interested to know where MAN stands at the moment and the future in terms of the A330's? Are we to assume that long haul at MAN wins a stay of execution with no immediate US routes announced from LHR to coincide with Open Skies? I know one school of thought was that ORD would remain from MAN but the Caribbean and Vegas routes might be under threat with Open Skies LHR ops.

Also might the existing A330's be used on the busier BMED routes from LHR?

Anybody got any more information at this stage???

Do you think Turner and the board changed their minds about the 330's because they just don't know whats going on or is this a well constructed plan. Why have a big hoo har about 5 new A/C that then never happens? Ofcourse things in this business change but in the space of a few weeks, just seems a little odd that the tune keeps changing!

787 order maybe?!

Icelandic 757 Lease
 

bmi leasing Icelandic 757-200 from October 13th - 16th. Why such a short lease and what maintenance is this covering for?

Thanks

I heard the icelandair is to cover the late return of the 330 out of reconfiguration due to the ending of the 767 damp lease.

Haven't they learned their lessons from last time they did this! :=

They only see the pound signs after all its run by an accountant.
Penny wise pound foolish

rgds

Keepitlit

Not sure I fully understand the comment about pound signs and accountants. The A330 is late coming out of refit, so they needed a few days of cover with a different plane.

Sorry, but pretty much all airlines have to do this at some time or another, even BA with a much bigger fleet. bmi have a limited set of planes to shuffle around, so keeping it down to a few days of cover doesn't seem unreasonable.

I'm probably missing something here, so feel free to educate me if I am :ooh:

:ugh:no RAPC thats exactly how it is

The product that ice supply dose not get a good rep, just look at what happened when globespan got them in.
The point being they are probably the cheapest, which would be typical bmi form, isnt the best idea when your trying to make your mark in a business market.

regards

keepitlit

Icey 757
 

Believe me the reason that Iceland Air was brought in is not cost driven .....

At the current time availability of suitable A/C with the correct permits and permissions to operate the Saudi routes is very very limited .

Those carriers who had suitable aircraft didnt have the corerct permissions to operate to saudi , and other carriers who did have correct permissions diddnt have aircraft available.

Many man hours were spent trying to source coverage for the late A330 both in house and externally.

not quite as easy as you might think !

And the comments from the passengers to KSA - and staff in country - have been extremely complimentary about the flight crews!

HWB

BMI Baby Fleet
 

Any truth in the rumour (from another forum) that five ex Easyjet now Virgin Nigeria 733's have been sourced?

The aircraft mentioned are all 1999 build and fits the rumours that
they were currently after 1998 or 1999 builds.

I think that one other has also been sourced making six in total
of the rumoured 8 for next summer.

Are all the 500's leaving the fleet this winter (ZH gone already) or
just the older ones?

Pete

a/c ten years old, thats just shocking, what about the green issue, esp if any of these are going to EMA, and we all know how much EMA is trying to go green

Lee

You are joking, aren't u Lee?

Are CWL going to see any of these new babies?

MB

Baby
 

Apparently e-mails have been sent stating that the summer 2008 routes will be released on 20 November but not sure if that is just BHX.

I have not got mine yet.

I would imagine Manchester would get their 4th one back and BHX its
8th as per this summer but if they have sourced more aircraft I don't
think 9 or 10 at BHX is unrealistic.

Pete

Baby
 

I thought that some routes are going on sle this week with more to follow.

MB

IATA scheduling conference is 10th-13th November. To announce schedules before you are sure of your slots might be dangerous!

28th November therefore sounds like a sensible date for Summer 08 to be put on sale.

BMI Baby
 

MonkeyB

You could be right and my source as well!

BHX last year saw two releases one on 3/11/06 and the 2nd on 23/11/06.

FAO, GLA & Murcia (March starts) followed by Jersey, Marseille Lisbon and Rome (May starts).

I suppose it will depend on slots and if any "new" (in inverted comma's for Lee ;)) arriving after March.

Pete

Very few airlines begin immediately with brand new aircraft, and for an airline that is only five years old, bmibaby has grown from 2 surplus mainline aircraft and an occasionally borrowed Fokker, to an airline in our own right, with our own AOC, management team and a fleet varying between 18 - 21 aircraft. They may not be the newest, and this summer has resulted in some long delays and challenging introductions to the fleet, but an average age of 11 years is certainly not ancient, especially given some or Ryanair's first 737-800s were introduced at the end of the 90s, and it was only until recently the 737-200 was a regular fixture in the fleet. baby will never be the size or have the financial ability of airlines like Ryanair, but we fill a niche. Nothing is stopping another airline buying us out, and it's one of many rumours going on right now, but in the meantime we're trundling along and doing the best we can with our resources.

Hi bmi.baby.

Whilst I agree with you on many points, you will have to agree that baby was not a new airline start up. Baby was started by all the 737's we had in LHR being re painted and sent to EMA. They didn't have to be bought or found. Midland did not have to spend a penny to get baby off the ground, in fact for many years mainline picked up the bill for baby in every area until star found out.

6

Olton Pete
 

Not sure about these 5 ex EZY 733s.Next year,as it stands now, it'll be an ex Italian one and another from the Pacific in service by mid-summer.A/C need to be sourced and 'C' checked as part of most handback deals which takes time to arrange and complete.733s getting difficult to source.

ZG and ZI next to follow ZH to Russia over the coming months - you can do the maths

Right,I'll get me coat..............................

I can't let that subject pass without comment. It's important not to forget to mention the human cost, which was the most disgusting aspect of the whole manipulated sham.

It was a case of "Your existing job no longer exists, but you might be accepted (if you say please) for a job which is exactly the same as your old job, but with a "totally new, totally separate" company, on less pay with worse conditions."

The other "choices", depending upon your job, were redundancy or move to Heathrow.

Nice treatment.

Not.

Observing these goings on from the safety of Heathrow, I was shocked by this treatment and even more shocked by the disinterest shown by colleagues at other bases and lack of resistance fron BALPA and cabin crew union. In fact, some pilots were gleefully crossing more senior baby-bound people off the seniority list! Human nature, eh!

Well, when (not if) the whole mess is taken over, you'd all better start worrying about your jobs. bmi/BMED discussions such as these will pale in comparison.

I see ze germans seem to be interested mainly in SMB majority stake rather than the soon available SAS 20% according to Bloomberg. I can see their logic though as what's the point in further investment unless it's a controlling share that's achieved?

My manservant 'Lurch' has kindly provided the following link for those who want to read it for themselves...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...&refer=germany

Best regards,

The Count

With G-BVZH gone now, and with G-BVZG, G-BVZI going soon as well as the others, what are they replacing them with :S

They only seem to have 1 aircraft on order for next year at the current time, what are the plans

?

acbus,

Your'e quite right, shoddy tactics were and still are common place when the management want to do something, they will do it with no thought for the 'human' element.

We had are chances long ago to stand up and say 'NO' but we didn't. So who is to blame? I think we must all share blame in our current situation. They think we are weak and in many ways we are, mainly, I believe because we are a workforce that is seperated. If we all worked the same hours under the same roof things would never have gone on for so long. This is true of most airlines and is why our jobs enjoy little of the regulations that most industry's have. ........... When did you last work a 37 hr week?

6

baby were always reducing our fleet to 18 from 21 over the winter period, allowing us to get rid of the older 735s. I think there are 2 733s coming from Air One and another from Varig next summer bringing the fleet back up to 21. I wasn't aware we were getting aircraft from Virgin Nigeria, though they seem quite new, just hopefully they don't have the quirks of the ones from Saudi!

As said before,definitely only one from Air One and one from a little island in the Pacific (complete with VIPs no doubt) coming next year.

Right,I'll get me coat.......................

Count, could you cut and paste please because you have to register to use that site, ta.

Sorry Lex, obviously my manservant Lurch has made a mistake with his weblink. After severe punishment, he tells me you can find it by typing ' bmi lufthansa ' into google and then selecting news which will give a selection of articles.

Hope this helps,

The Count