Route update for the summer for LHR:

Extra late night MAN
Second Daily DME

INV - Dropped
NCE / ALC Dropped for S08

What are you thoughts on this ?

Have used the Inverness service a couple of times recently as office is close to Heathrow.

Nuisance for business travel that it was only once a day, means you need to waste a night away. It's a real nuisance to get over to FlyBe at Gatwick as well, but that is the only operation with morning and evening. If Easy moved to such an schedule from Luton FlyBe would feel it.

Never a worthwhile load, 40-50 at max. On one occasion an-ex BMed A320 was substituted. Nobody allowed in the (surprisingly sizeable) C class cabin at the front, thus for weight & balance nobody at the rear either, so we were all squashed 6-across into a few rows abeam the CofG.

You can't believe it has been dropped "due to Heathrow costs". BMI have been the second largest operator there for many years; it's not as if Route Planning didn't know perfectly well what the costs are. They just haven't got the loads/yield they predicted.

Speaking of the Route Planning team, is the man who thought up Leeds-Lille feeling better yet ? :)

In all honesty I'm sure they were just sitting on the slot with Inverness. No intention to try and run the route at times convenient to business and not enough yield on the seasonal tourist markets. This would no be news to BMI and we shouldn't be surprised.
I fully expect MME, ABZ and possibly LBA to go as well.

For DME is another A320 going to be reconfigured, or will an ex BMED a/c be used? Good to see BD taking a serious approach to their mid-haul markets.
As for routes cut to make way for mid-haul, I would expect AMS and BRU to face the axe with the improved Eurostar from St. Pancras, just as CDG was unceremoniously dumped. Hopefully BD will find some decent 762/752s for their medium-haul network. Easier said than done though....return of teh ArkeFly 767?
Brian.

The same aircraft will be able to operate both DME rotations :)

some talk about regional expanding at ema... just looking at the cologne timetable

its departure on a weekday is at 10.15
the Brussels flight doesnt schedule to land till 10


surely they cant get a E145 in and out in 15mins...

do you think this is a indication for some more routes?

some german routes could fit into the morning rotation nicely...

Are the VCE and PMI routes safe?

Still hear rumblings of Regional looking at Southampton with 2 x E145. Anybody able to shed any light on this.

I think I'm correct in saying a second aircraft has been modified to the 6 row 2-2 config that G-MIDO has. (I think its G-MIDT).

G-MIDO has been used on the late LHR-JER-LHR for most rotations over the past few months, after the DME-LHR sector. Hardly a mid-haul route but its kept the few business pax happy!

G-MIDT / G-MIDY - have a config of 20/102
G-MIDO has a config of 24/102

I think they have had to drop these routes as the slots that came from BMED start to be transfered over to BA later this year. Which means they need slots to fit the old BMED routes in, hence dropping some routes to make space.

By not operating a daily service to ALC, INV and NCE, slots are released for the second DME, the extra MAN and TLV.

Out of interest G-MIDO is due to be reconfigured during its hangar input in February, so that it will be in the same config as DT and DY.

The extra evening MAN flight is a direct replacement for an evening LBA rotation
The INV slot, with a lot of retiming of other flights no doubt provides for the second DME
ALC and NCE do not operate in winter, so while bmi have a couple of extra slots next summer compared to S07, were these slots used for something else year round this winter?

All former BMed slots stay on BMed routes for Summer 2008.

The late-night LBA is replaced by a late-night MAN which is probably not the worst idea in the world given that the LBA was within about 20 minutes of another flight on the route and BA's last flight of the day from LHR to MAN this summer is actually relatively early at 19:40, so a late one might actually pick up any passengers needing that service.

The TLV and extra DME replace the INV and NCE. The Alicante service never had any slots allocated to it anyway for S08 as they had long since been robbed.

Seems a lot of hassle for the sake of four seats.

I assume DT and DY share CAI and (eventually) TLV?

What plans might BMI Reg have for the two E145's at SOU?

AMS never got started...like many BMI ideas, LTN-BRU for example.

G-MIDV operated its last schedule for bmi when it landed from BHD last Saturday.

It is significant in that it was the aircraft that launched the new name and livery and is the first bmi liveried Airbus to leave the fleet.

So what's replacing DV then? Another 319? :confused:

No plans for any more A319s at the moment, just one A321.

planned mainline fleet changes over the coming months are:

G-MIDU retires - Feb

G-MEDN delivery - May

BMI 320's
 

Endeavour

A surprise to see the 320's going, do you know if it was ever considered
to renew the leases (assuming they were not owned) and pass them on
to Baby for a phased fleet renewal?

I must admit the 320 is a lot of seats to fill but with the alleged lack of
decent second hand 733's, the 735's slowly departing it would have been
a good opportunity or were the leases too expensive for Baby's purposes?

Pete