Could not agree more

Rather than purely Bishop, I'd be inclined to point the finger also at Lufty's advisers just before they signed the contract (the 'put option') that allowed Bishop to force Lufty to buy bmi.

Agreeing to buy a company far into the future for a price that bears little or no relevance to the strength of the company when it changes hands and when there are no guarantees that the company will be well managed between now and then only encourages the main shareholder(s) to do as much asset stripping in advance as possible

Basic gist of a briefing today:

• 90 day consultations across the board start tomorrow
• Stockley Close, DH, bases outside LHR and EMA hangar to close by the end of the year
• LHR operational staff to TUPE to BA, everybody else to get an offer, subject to the consultation process
• bmi contractual terms and conditions apply to severance
• BA internal vacancies to be made available to bmi staff
• bmi/BMA ceases to exist as an airline by the end of the year
• A319/320/321s start transfer of AOC to BA commencing end of May
• A330s cease flying end of summer season

The above applies to bmi mainline only, not baby or Regional.

:{ or :ok: depending on your North - South divide.

That would be LH's ex-CEO but one (and current chairman of the Supervisory Board) and the current CEO of Condor.
The Alliance Agreement was a horrendously optimistic document, based on PowerPoint presentations that were totally devoid of risk-management strategies. Or reality, for that matter.

be interesting to see how they expect to run the airline for the next 6months with completely demotivated staff..(engineering,crewing,ops)........... that's those that choose to stay and not leave !!!

Guess it doesn't really matter. No long-term reputational issues and BA will absorb any disgruntled pax issues by making offers.

Customers won't be motivated to book BMi now.

If I were managing, that would be my mangment view.

Quote: "Rather than purely Bishop, I'd be inclined to point the finger also at Lufty's advisers just before they signed the contract (the 'put option') that allowed Bishop to force Lufty to buy bmi.

Agreeing to buy a company far into the future for a price that bears little or no relevance to the strength of the company when it changes hands and when there are no guarantees that the company will be well managed between now and then only encourages the main shareholder(s) to do as much asset stripping in advance as possible"

Yes the "put option" arrangement does appear ill-advised from LH's point of view. Suspect that at the time, LH were greedily eye-ing up the future opportunity to get its hands on 14% of LHR slots.

Well they now have 8% (for another week) so 6% have "disappeared" to LH, or been sold by LH to offset losses.

Either way it's a disgraceful example of asset-stripping, and a classic example of an artificial market distortion (i.e. slot trading) directly caused by an absence of adequate runway capacity at LHR.

How many are losing their jobs as a result?

Are the Summer schedules safe?
 

Hi all, I really want to log an ERJ but won't be able to travel until early July.

I'm looking at MAN-LHR with BMI Regional, the prices are good...but is it likely (I fear) that the aircraft will haved changed ie. BA/BMI A320 etc. by that date (c.July 2-6th?)

Any feedback would be much appreciated! :ok:

As expected, Sir Beardy has decided to appeal the EU's decision on BA and bmi. VS also seem likely to bid for all 12 slots up for grabs. Can only guess VS have realised that this is such bad news for them, that they have to act.
BBC News - Virgin Atlantic to appeal against BMI sale to BA

Very difficult to see what VS realistically hope to achieve from the appeal, apart from putting more FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) into bmi

WTF
 

Hey quantumofcheese, 1200 people out of work and all you care about is flying an ERJ, class!

bmi expat, I am sorry but:

1. 1200 job losses are preferable to 2700 job losses, that could have been over twice as many you know. Any magnitude of job losses is terrible but I am so glad that 1500 jobs will be saved!

2. The fact that an ERJ is on routes to LHR gives no suprise that BMI is where it currently is, I have never comprehended this...and that's in fact very reason which made me ask my original question as if I doubt IAG (or whoever BMI Regional's buyer may be..) want to keep them on such a route for much longer

I have read that the summer schedule is expected to remain as it currently is...does anybody know otherwise? I will be very grateful for any responses :)

I agree, but I just think they could have been used more effectively

And thanks :)

Haven't seen anything but has Sir Michael Bishop had anything to say about the bmi/ba merger?

Doubt it ... He'll be too busy counting his pennies !!!

Sir Michael Bishop
 

Not likely, is probably still laughing his head of all the way to the bank!

Had expected him to say nothing :hmm: really is such a shame what happened to bmi in the end only flew with them once and really enjoyed flying with them! hope to make a final journey with them in the Summer, I wish all staff the very best of luck in the coming days.

In buying bmi, would LH not have inserted a clause somewhere in the legal stuff, requiring that neither SMB or LH criticise each other publicly or make comments on how bmi is being run from the date of sale onwards for a number of years ?

When buying a company, the new owner does not want the previous owner to start playing the role of back seat driver - tends to mess up the morale of the employees

Jack1985Not withstanding the porbably correct observation by davidjohnson6, SMB does at least have the money to compensate him for seeing the exact opposite of all his plans.

(my speculation) For years, he prevented BA or VS from buying BD and thought he had 'won' by selling to LH. Now the worst has happened and his business has been shown to be badly managed, overblown and sold off to his arch enemy. Whilst he is not soley responsible - he was the one who held all the strings and was reported as being hands on in the main era of the carrier.

Still, money and sitting in the house of lords will probably convince a few folk what a jolly clever business man he was ...

He's lurking
 

Take a look at this anaysts briefing about the plans for integration. Some fascinating detail in it

Centreforaviation.com/analysis