LHR-MAN schedules
 

Evening! Anyone know if the status quo with cancellations on the MAN-LHR shuttles with BD will continue? I'm making the assumption aircraft are being shifted to more profitable charter operations as flights are often cancelled days or weeks in advance - still not terribly useful when I keep getting re-booked onto flights which shorten my weekends!

Will use BA if the situation with BD is set to continue, so any info would be most useful - BD staff either don't know what the issue is or are unwilling to openly divulge.

Perkin
 

Loads are crap at the minute, so its a case of culling the rotations that are not making money, yes some will go elsewhere, but most airlines are doing the same so we pick up customer from BA and they pick up some from BD, sign of the times at the minute

Inkjet
 

Well, I kinda worked that out for myself when I was on an A320 with just 3 other pax before Christmas!! :ok: Very pleasant way of travelling but not especially sustainable!

I think what I was not particularly clear about in my previous post was if there was any regularity with this as it seems pretty random at the moment in terms of which flights are removed from the schedule, and it always seems to be the worst times for shortening my valuable weekends! Will they have slots taken off them if the same flights are cancelled all the time? Is the situation any better with the BA shuttles, or can you suggest which BD flights generally have the best loads so I can avoid cancellations? Any info would be greatly appreciated :)

Perkins
 

As a general rule the routes/times that have the slowest sales are the ones at risk and in any event it should settle down during April/May as the change over to the Winter program is complete. a number of routes have had their frequency cut and this includes Dublin & Amsterdam, Leeds & Teesside have gone and LHR/BRU is an all Embraer route with a 135, likewise ABZ but with a 145 the rational is that there is enough demand to fill these small aircraft at prices that produce a profit, not everone likes them but with only 49 seats the que is never long!

it should settle down during April/May

If you print a shedule ,you should fly it.

stormin
 

In an ideal word i would agree, but product tweaks are part of all business planning, additional flights get added as well, in all case an alternative or refund is offered, again not ideal, i went for a meal the other night and the steak that was on the menu that i wanted wasn't available

Does this mean Flightrider has been rumbled?

:ok:

Anyone else heard the rumour that two of the A330 A/C are going to a new home?

No - still here and still rumbling. Don't understand what you mean by that post.

Hadn't heard the rumour, but the original leases on the two A330s taken from ILFC (G-WWBB and G-WWBM) come up for renewal in spring 2010. It's fair to point out that many leases are renewed between the airline and the lessor as a matter of course, and so the fact that the leases fall due for renewal next year doesn't necessarily mean that the aircraft will leave the fleet. However it does mean that both the airline and the lessor have the opportunity to change at that time, which would appear to tie in to the rumour you've heard.

G-WWBD is leased until spring 2011 from a different company.

Well, how do you square your figures with NT's memo?

And even if you want to count the contribution of increased fuel costs towards total losses at baby, that decision isn't a baby decision is it?

In fact, isn't bmi hedging policy determined by Lufthansa so it could hardly count against them when Lufthansa assess the success of the model...

My guess is baby is in better shape than Mainline.

No excess crew, no lop-sided seniority lists (if they count for anything in the bmi group these days), flexible T&C's, LOCO, etc etc.

:rolleyes:

Very simple. NT's memo states that Baby is making a positive cash contribution. What this means is that it is generating plenty of cash from advance bookings, which is not surprising given its high number of sunshine routes where you get advance bookings for the summer season. Generating cash does not mean that the airline is profitable - far from it. You could still lose a significant amount - let's say £20m - but on a turnover of six times that, be cash generative during the January/February/March period as the bookings come in for the summer.

On the other hand, bmi mainline could be cash neutral or negative right now - given later-booking business travel routes versus day-to-day losses - but be more profitable (or less loss-making) than its subsidiary.

Don't get cash and profit mixed up.

I don't doubt that bmi baby's costbase is in better form than mainline, and you are right in that the weight at the top of the seniority list in mainline is one of the key issues that the airline has. How you then choose, as a management team, to deploy the cost-bases to revenue earning activities is then a totally different matter.

You said:

NT said:

Leaving aside £72 million of accounted for losses, how much of the remainder may be attributed to decisions baby management have made?

Out of the remaining £28 million of losses you would have a hard time convincing anyone that baby account for virtually any of it.

Your last post is irrelevant. The activities of 2009 don't affect last years accounts (I'm presuming the accounts run on the calendar year.)*.

Nice try though.

:ok:

*Not strictly true, but cancels out over the year.

Just a few questions I have been pondering since the timetable switch. Grateful for any info/insight!

Where has G-MIDY disappeared to? Has the axe been yielded on one of the few original A320's with a decent business class? Surely not? Having DY in the 50" business class config offers a degree of cover incase of tech issues on mid-haul?

What is the position with Brussels? It was supposed to go EMB but seems still to be a mixed bag of 145's and A320. Was this an oversight in terms of route popularity or simply a case of no other EMB to operate the run?

Cheers
EGAC

Mainline wanted 10 Embraers but we could only give 5, one of which was the maintenance spare.

The Emb is the most economical and suitably sized with the loads that I have seen upto now. If the loads pick up then I guess an Airbus will be dispatched to the route. By far the best option would be to have a E170 with a small business class up front to cater for the LHR snob factor( Im not going on that small plane! Even though it is comfy once seated).

It only takes 35 mins for goodness sake!!!

D and F :8

If mainline wanted 10 145's any chance of regional getting anymore airframes soon to assist this and keep the current route structure taken care of. How are things looking at bmi regional. Its' gone very quiet again regarding Lufthansa and future plans.

Every thing is just great. We are all working as hard as ever and keeping to a tight schedule. I have to say though that waiting for the deal to go through is beginning to take its toll on crew morale. Not likely to get more airframes, would seem silly considering that a chunk of ours are operating for mainline at the mo.

I just hope we end up flying more modern RJs if Lufty come up trumps. :)

With new RJ types going to other Lufty interests would be great if bmir aquired similar types....... Would be very happy with the 145 though...:ok:

Anyone seen the new Premium check-in area at LHR ?
It is excellent and a great improvement!

Angrybaby "everthings just great"
 

Not what i am hearing up here at Leeds, with just 2 x 135 & 1 x 145 and crews for 5 aircraft plus London seconded pilots with right of a abode in Leeds if the ERJ go from LHR, the crews at Leeds are are very concerned given LiFo is out the window and the matrix means anyone who's been naughty could go down the road sharpish, the bread and butter "Banks" route of EDI is well down and 3k worth of jobs cuts at RBS wont help

Maybe your angry cos you diddn't get baby..lol


LH deal now unlikely to go through until mid summer, if at all given the stance that EU are taking on Austrian:eek: