Ahem.

Possible Transavia UK launch. The fleet would fit.

toledoashley,

FlyBE are not 737 operators, nor are Virgin. BA would not fit with Baby nor would Thomson. Stelios is an unlikely suitor as are Astraeus. Transavia are not a UK based 737 operator.

I thought Transavia UK was sold to Ryanair several years ago - it was called buzz

No, buzz originally was a low cost spin off of Air UK whose group was ultimately taken over by KLM and Buzz disposed of to FR

Bloomberg news reporting IAG to close deal to buy bmi and this will be announced tomorrow when they ( IAG ) announce their profits.

Air UK were KLM UK well before Buzz was conceived. The 146's of Buzz were repainted out of KLM livery.

But Transavia is expanding and it's always been talked about as potentially expanding to the UK when the time is ready - if they're selling Mainline to OneWorld, where's the issue selling Baby to SkyTeam? It'd be a good access point to the UK market for AF/KL before IAG bring Vueling over here...

IAG have bought BMI - to be formally announced tomorrow

I HIGHLY doubt IAG have *bought* BMI to be announced tomorrow, but I await to be proven wrong and would welcome the news.

IAG *might* announce that it has bought BMI's LHR slots - now that I can believe. But buying BMI Mainline? It's a headache not worth having for IAG - where's the benefit yet again? Unless the fleet would be handy for some of the aging fleet especially at LGW and even some LHR frames I suppose - then maybe that could work. But I await the news.

That's what's being announced. No-one knows the full detail yet but it seems to be a full buy out and not a cherry picking slot grab apparently.

Announcement tomorrow

If IAG want the slots, they will have to take most, if not all, of the fleet, otherwise they will loose the slots, they will need a lot of BD's current people too, to fly these aircraft. The route network will be pared an optimised over time, probably domestic and other competing destinations first.
The A32X's are fairly compatible with the rest of the BA fleet, so it's not a huge deal, Im sure Ba can find a use for most of the BD fleet. I suspect the A330s will be disposed of pretty quickly, if they are acquired at all, those routes would simply be operated by 767 or 777, I should imagine.

An MOU has been signed. That does not indicate that the deal has been done, but it's a step along the road to a sale.

Nothing is guaranteed until the money is in the bank.

However, I am again unsurprised and pretty disgusted that we at bmi have found this out via the media, rather than by being kept even remotely informed and treated like adults. But hey, it's one of the main reasons that bmi is in this situation in the first place, so why change the management habit of a lifetime...

When we found this out today. The final sense of caring that most people have been desperately trying to hold onto whilst this debacle has gone on, evaporated in an instant.
I've never seen such a fed up bunch of people, who just a few weeks ago were passionate about their company and proud to wear the uniform despite what had been going on.

Well done. Achieving that sort of turnaround in staff morale is really quite an impressive feat... :D

Good luck everyone at the coal face. I've been proud to work with you all at bmi and I can comfortably say that it isn't the staff who let the company down. However, they're the ones who'll be having another happy christmas with if not actual P45's in their hands, then threat of them will be looming as I can't imagine IAG/BA will want to take the company on as a whole.

I shall refrain from posting my real opinion of how things have been handled by our lords and masters as it would break the rules of this site in regards to swearing.

Time to do my best Yosser Hughes impression.

Gizza a job. I can do that...

That is my understanding too. However, with the lack of communication, all sorts of scenarios are being played out in people's heads about this.

IAG have stated that they are only interested in the slots, but what that actually means in reality, no-one has bothered to say.

So cue a whole horde of fed up people who are assuming the worst and wondering if the company will exist tomorrow, let alone in 6 months.

Bankrupt an airline (Bish & Co) and be elevated to the Peerage!!!!!. Funny old world we live in

Inkjet, you seem to be in the know but here it seems you are unsure about WW so I would suggest you have all the facts or none at all. There is no way that if you are close to the facts that you wouldn't know about WW.

In addition, you stated some weeks back that WW are in the City Airport in Belfast for the long run.. or something that that effect, which indicates that you do know... so some contradictions.

It is highly unlikely that anybody knows what will actually happen should WW be sold. For bmi it a bit different in that the slots will be used at LHR by someone .. the buyer. But WW could change radically and lets face it, it only has approx 12 aircraft.

Also re bmi mainline, If there are so many interested parties including Emirates etc for slots, surely LH would be selling to the highest bidder so is it impossible that say BA will take half of the routes and staff and aircraft and other carriers will take the rest?

If BA dont take aircraft, then LGW will see the cut backs and airbus and long haul aircraft come to LHR. Besides didnt BA recruit a big batch of pilots recently? I wouldnt be surprised if BA stated that 'LGW is not a strong fit to our core model and better suited to LOCO carriers'.
Lets not forget BA will be setting their sights on TAP.. so a focus on core competences, like hub and spoke, differentiated from LOCO's, i.e. not LGW?

If it is IAG/BA then it might not be all bad, BA will need the aircraft to operate on the slots immediately after the sale completes or they'll lose the slots. They will therefore need the crews, and due to expansion they'll need some head office staff. I saw some BA jobs were on the external website, so there has to be opportunities for people.

Whatever the outcome, good luck to all of you at bmi, I hope it all works out ok for you.

The end
 

All I can say is shame on Lufthansa, Wolfgang and the rest of the bunch. Spend your dole time getting LH out of the UK market, thats what I say for sending what once was the UK's second carrier to it's knees (with the help of Bish,Tuner and the like) is unforgivable. But remember living might seem like an ages, rotting in Hell is forever (Bish):\

It was on its knees when they took over, they have failed to make it stand again, it was a half hearted and incompetent effort at a recovery.

LH have had people in the company for a long long time though. It's not like the situation so have shocked them when they took over.

Say again S l o w l y, I can empathise with what you have written, and can only feel a little disappointed that we are presented with this information through the press again, assuming its true of course, which looks pretty certain.

All I can say is, it will be a sad day where there are no Bmi fins at LHR, the company has a lot of history. I have really enjoyed working there and have my fingers crossed for the next few months for all the employees of the company.