BMI
 

Was just reading the bmi newsletter/email about what the airline plans for the strike at BA if it goes ahead. The airline said it will add capacity and additional flights on similar routes that BA operates.

It said that it would use the slots that become available during the strike to add services. I wonder where they will get the additional capacity?
Probably Titan etc.

However the tone of the information (available on bmi site) sounded to me like cooperation with BA rather than opportunistic!!

What does anyone else think ?

EI BUD


Continuation of: http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...234532&page=13

EI-BUD

This is just bmi doing what it should have done with previous LHR/BA troubles. During the increased security and fog problems last year, bmi did not suffer as much as BA with cancelled flights. Especially the fog at the end of the year, flights were going out less than full and not once did bmi toot their own horn and let the punters know, there was no press coverage of the fact which gave the public the opinion that because BA had problems, LHR was effectively shut down and unoperational, this was a missed oppurtunity for bmi.

bmi in talks to buy British Mediterranean
 

Just read this in the Times. Does anybody know any more?

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/ar...7-2563445.html

BMED ‘in talks with bmi’
24 Jan 2007
The Daily Telegraph reports talks between BMED and a group of UK investors about a potential £30m rescue bid for the airline have broken down.
BMED announced earlier this month that the investors, who include a subsidiary of M1 Group, which is controlled by the Lebanese Mikati family, would provide £30m funding in return for majority control of the airline. They would also, as a ‘demonstration of good faith’, advance £3m of the £30m to BMED by way of a term loan to help meet the airline’s immediate liquidity requirements.

However, according to the Telegraph, the proposed deal has broken down and BMED is now in ‘last-ditch rescue talks with another airline’, believed to be bmi. BMED is reported to have written to its shareholders, who include its chairman, Tory peer Lord Hesketh with a 19% stake, warning that if the latest talks fail there is a risk it will be unable to pay its debts.

The paper quotes BMED chief executive, David Richardson: ‘While we are still having conversations with the Mikatis, their exclusivity period has come to an end. They wanted to make some pretty significant changes to the deal which our shareholders thought was unjustified.’

Richardson declined to comment on any other potential buyers, but added: ‘I am still confident that we will be able to secure a deal with someone. If you are an airline with eight slots at Heathrow, it’s bizarre that you wouldn’t survive in some shape or form because those slots have value.’

BMED, formerly British Mediterranean Airways, was established in 1994 and became a British Airways franchise partner in 1997. It currently operates a fleet of eight aircraft in BA colours to 16 destinations from Heathrow including Beirut, Damascus, Teheran, Tashkent and Khartoum, and employs 750 staff.

In the year to end-Mar05 BMED made a pre-tax profit of £5.1m on revenues of £99.7m. However, record oil prices coupled with the Jul06 Israel-Hezbollah hostilities in Lebanon are expected to push it to a £21m loss in the current financial year, on top of FY05/06’s £10m loss.

In FY04/05 BMED paid BA about £14m in franchise fees and for services including engineering and airport lounges, the Telegraph said. It also provided BA with £28m-worth of connecting passengers, while BA fed through £35m-worth to BMED.

Richardson told the paper: ‘BA are happy with the franchise agreement as it is but we are struggling to make it work for us.’

The Telegraph also has this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...4/cnbmed24.xml

Guess if BMI bought BMED then that would be the end of the franchise??

Not necessarily.

It could have some interesting synergies, I would have thought.

What was once a proud airline is now BlackHole airlines ..... along with BA . They call it progress . A pox on modern "managers" , long short and tall .

BMed update
 

Any update from people in the know and implications for the crew of BMed being taken over by another airline?

Heard today that JER - LHR is confirmed. Also heard that the Bmed rumour is true. bmi are in talks but nothing more than that. If the talks are a success bmi are in a position to move forward on a deal. This came directly from the Hall. We'll just have to wait and see.

Jersey Route
 

Yes the Heathrow-Jersey route all being well will be signed up tomorrow.

Two flights a day starting the day after the Paris flight finish.

Times are LHR 0710 JER 0815 JER 0840 LHR 0945
LHR 1840 JER 1940 JER 2035 LHR 2135

We will have to wait and see how well it performs it will be reviewed after three years the articl stated.:ok:

25 Min turnaround in JER in the morning rotation!
Seems a bit short for bmi? I take it these are just provisional timings.
Brgds
Richard

BMED position
 

How can bmi in its wildest dreams want to buy BMED: BMED was profitable until two years ago but with geo political problems in the middle east + aircraft that are not suitable for the region how can any airline survive with the losses that it has suffered to date? Do bmi want the LHR slots or give BA a bloody nose?

Good luck to all.

Matterhorn

Bmi & Bmed
 

Matterhorn

Have to say Matterhorn , I have been thinking the very same as you. Bmi would be crazy to seriously consider the network of BMED, many destinations are in politically volatile areas. And lets be realistic BA are delighted to have services to these areas and have absolutely no risks. BA themselves never did have much in its own right to these destinations pre BMED??

If Bmi are buying BMED for slots thats another matter. In any case. BMI have racked up cumulative losses since 2001 of STG18M .. I would be surprised to see them make investment into an airline that itself is in bad financial repair. ADVERT LINK REMOVED

Surley BA have an agreement with BMEd that BA would get first refusal to buy the business??? I think Bmi is getting friendlier with BA??

The whole info about BA strike on bmi website does not seem to be anti BA . Ie I detected from the information more of a cooperation than opposition??

What does anyone think ???

Actually, bmi have been gaining experience on flying to politically volatile areas with the very successful Riyadh & Jeddah routes. They could make the former BMED services work by not having to pay BA for the franchise agreements, but also with a lower cost base.

Air France have been doing this with their Dedicate service whereby the timetables, frequencies, service levels and comfort on Dedicate flights match all the usual Air France long-haul standards. The flights are operated using 82-seat Airbus A319s offering l'Espace Affaires (business) and Tempo (economy) cabins, which seems to be what bmi/BMED have with their A320s, and can carve out a more successful, profitable niche than flying up/down to Scotland, competing with BA, easyJet and the trains.

Got it in one I would think, with the added bonus of a compatible fleet (inc engines??) and trained crews (I guess).

Bmi have tried to be creative with their lack of slots in the past - ie their attempt to start up to Doha in cooperation with Qatar AW - so the 7-8 arrival each day that BMed would provide would give them scope for a number of profitable options.

What happened here at LBA?


http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1166724

Because Prune want people to use an existing thread for a company and not start lots of new threads.

Simple

I can't concieve of why bmi would want more LHR slots right now, unless it was to sell them on later (BMed perhaps being cheaper than the value of their slots?) - if anything, bmi have been operating "slot holding" flights into LHR recently in oder to preserve those slots that they have, rather than needing more. Jersey isn't using all of the slots made vacant by the withdrawal from CDG, so again bmi have some slots looking for flights. The QR deal was nothing to do with bmi needing slots - it was in fact QR operating on a bmi flight number using bmi slots, because the bilatteral didn't allow QR to increase frequencies and QR couldn't get slots itself but bmi had some slots "available".

Actually, as mentioned above, BMed's sphere of operations does IMHO fit fairly nicely into bmi's "new" direction - mid-haul into primarily non-leisure destinations - and on that basis I'd have thought BMed would be quite a nice fit. However, do bmi actually have the money to spend on BMed, because I doubt Uncle Lufthansa or Auntie SAS will put their hands in their pockets without very good cause?
Andy

Re LBA
 

That's what happens when you land with the parking brake set :{

In relation to the BMED talks, the CEO, dep CEO, Finance Director and GM Networks were all down in London last week. The FD is going to be there for maybe another two weeks and the CEO & d CEO are not to be relied upon to be at the Hall over the next couple of weeks.