Closer to ten when I started being that geeky. I wanted my own B737 in the garden from an early age, my parents were alas not too helpful.

The following four key projects were approved in a Board Meeting held on 3rd September 2010.

• Lease extensions for 24 of our aircraft that were due for renewal. We will be able to conclude these extensions when market prices are still low. This will mean that we will have lower lease rates per annum and therefore benefit from significant savings in the future.

Note:
Lease extensions thought to be on all A319's, all A320's & all but one A321 (DF). This information does not include A330 or B757 leases. The latter of which is due to return to Astraeus Airlines in the near future.

• Improving our short haul onboard experience and create higher revenue potential by increasing the number of seats on 18 of our short haul aircraft (11 x A319 and 7 x A320). The A319 will be standardised with 144 seats per aircraft and the A320 will have 168 seats. The seats on these aircraft will be replaced with the current seats used by Lufthansa in their short haul fleet. This work will be completed during 2011.

Note:
A319's G-DBCA-F currently have a config of 130CY
A320's G-MIDO/S/T/X/Y currently have a config of 156CY
A320's G-MEDH/K currently have a config of 22C 102Y

• Revamping our mid haul A321 fleet - this represents a major fleet refurbishment and includes new generation business class seats and new economy seats. Furthermore the aircraft will be equipped with state of the art in-flight entertainment systems in business and economy cabins. Due to long lead times, the roll-out will commence in 2012. This will enable us to be best in class for our strategically important mid haul markets.

Note:
The remaining one A321 not in bmi livery (DG) will be painted during October/November 2010.

• Our current reservation host system needs to be replaced in the coming years and therefore we have decided to start the migration of our booking inventory, codeshare and ticketing systems now. This is a complex 18 month project and will enable us to realise revenue benefits and cost savings from the beginning of 2012. We are planning to switch to a more modern reservations platform, which will enable us to effectively manage our booking, ticketing and codeshare transactions.

Thanks for the information TCX69. Where was the info sourced?

Disapointed that bmi are putting more seats on board their aircraft as I have always enjoyed flying bmi. This surely will put them at a disadvantage to BA as this will mean bmi have significantly more seats on their A319's and A320's than BA. Will be interesting to see what the seat pitch will be.

It is an from an internal bmi announcement.

BA's A319's/A320's have a config of 132/162 respectively so an extra 2 rows on the A319 & an extra row on the A320.

I believe the wardrobes/cupboards will be taken off these A/C so in actual fact the seat pitch shouldn't change majorly.

bmi is aiming for a more consistent operation. With all the shorthaul A319/A320's having the same config/seating, midhaul being operated on only A321's & Saudi/Longhaul operated on A330's.

Exciting times ahead for bmi hopefully.

Abosolutely. It seems things are looking much more streamlined and they finally seem to have a forward vision.

It was also announced somewhere that Lufthansa will be investing over £50million on the bmi group over the coming year. I guess this will also obviously include baby and regional so look forward to seeing what this involves.

Definately exciting times and a massive turnaround for the group, in what I feel, has happened in such a short time!

If BMI are getting rid of the 75, what will they use to operate the ALA/FRU and FNA?

Regards

Mike

Although not a new route, but a second CAI is on the cards.

I just want the nite stop and early DUB-LHR flight back

Yeah as queenvic mentioned, FNA is now operated on the A321, due to the AEU 757 being apparently banned from flying there! Load depending this has to tech stop in AGP on the o/b.

Will be interesting to see what happens to the ALA/FRU route when the 757 goes. Maybe it will operate via EVN or have a tech stop somewhere?

On another note, due to licensing issues in DEL, the A330 leased to TK has now reverted to flying to DAR/EBB again until the end of September & then is still undecided. Rumour is it will be operating the 3x weekly service to YYZ but again this is still not confirmed.

Sorry dont get me wrong I quite like BMI, well compared to the "competition" but the similarity is closing fast- but reference to exciting times ahead etc just makes me chuckle.

Yep on domestic routes anyway BMI are really no different...except that seat allocation at check in - but in theory thats what makes them a little more expensive than EasyJet!

The days when BMI were a good service airline has long gone. Indeed the other week while going LHR-GLA a change of aircraft - and granted from 319 to 320 which had business class seats resulted in one hour delay as the easy jet scrum was announced at the gate - yep a free for all - well free for all as long as you did not seat in the business class seats which of course they eventually had to allocate to the late boarders. What a shambles. Head counts at least three times them off chocks an hour late.

So the rather pathetic cabin announcements of "pleasure to welcome you on board - sit back and relax etc was met with a good deal of laughter folowed by the drinks and snacks for sale - now that sounds like a certain orange company to me alright.....


Nivsy

By the way it's bmi & not BMI! :ugh:

Allocated Seats
Free Baggage
Frequent Flyer Miles
Lounge Access for elgible Pax
Most punctual airline between LHR & DUB/EDI/MAN/GLA

More expensive... Maybe but if you look at LON-GLA-LON, 17-20 Sep... bmi=£84.10, EZY=80.98... Not that much cheaper considering they're a 'low cost carrier'!

bmi no longer have Business Class on shorthaul flights.

BMI or bmi whats the difference again? same old same old. And if you read my thread correctly there were business class seats on the particular A320 that was used on this flight (A320) as it replaced the scheduled A319. Sure a couple of added advantages if you value them....when I am on such a service baggage not an issue as travel with hand only for day trip or one night stop. A "free" cuppa tea would be nice. Agreed flight costs can vary between Midland (can I call them that?) than Easy but believe me not always and frankly sometimes (for me) Easy are much more punctual. Hey I did say I did quite like bmi,BMI,Middie (Identity crisis??) but its depleting!

Queenvic, do you have a link to the BEY? Nothing on the company site?

Cheers

BEY - see the press release section of the bmi website

CAI - there is currently a scarce capacity hearing ongoing for LON-CAI rights. UK airlines only have rights for 14 weekly flights and BA want to go from 7 to 10xWeek while EZY want 3xWeek flights. bmi have applied to keep their current 7xWeek - no application for 14xWeek and of course there is a chance they could have some of the current rights removed

Interesting that B757 G-STRY is no longer approved to fly to FNA but B757 G-STRW is! I know the reason why 'RY is no longer allowed to fly there but surprised they singled out 1 A/C & not all of the AEU 757's.

Why is it banned?

bmi to announce a new route tomorrow, Friday 24th September. Has been kept very quiet but rumours are Tripoli, Libya.

Watch this space!

Because of the amount of technical issues the aircraft has apparently & the fact that on the most recent incident the President's daugter was onboard!

NEW ROUTE

is Tripoli starting 1st Dec on A319

Repaint Update
 

Two further ex-BMED a/c are to be repainted in the next few months, leaving only two (G-MEDG/H) to be repainted.

A321, G-MEDF
31Oct10 LHR 0800 EMA 0845 BD9571
10Nov10 EMA 0800 LHR 0845 BD9531

A320, G-MEDK
12Nov10 LHR 2030 EMA 2115 BD9551
22Nov10 EMA 2030 LHR 2115 BD9521

Rgds

TCX69

I saw a comment about people going to BA (like 2 of mine it seems to have vanished..) A friend of mine is now sorted out but was a temp and was phoned a few weeks back about returning to BD. Is there still a group on notice of redundancy?