Radio 5 just did an interview with someone from LH (didn't catch their name/position) and although cagey about specifics he was pushing the line that the model they would use was the successful takeover of Swiss. People will know far better than I how welcome that is, but on the face of it Swiss have increased their fleet, and have new aircraft on order via their parent company, which suggests things may work out OK.

As a Manc I'm interested to see what they do at MAN. Whilst the demographics in Germany are different, LH seem happy to have multiple long haul bases in the same country, and will have the benefits of scale that bmi didn't previously. They have also expanded their own MAN operation substantially over the years. Time will tell....

ICARUS,

Lufty have got the full 80% (SMB 50% plus one and there own 30% less one) with SAS the remaining 20%. Wonder who will snap up that lot as SAS, in the past, have said that they wish to sell.

Methinks Luftie might "aquire" SAS too in the not too distant future. Will they at some point rename Star Alliance - Lufthansa?

LH is and wants to be profitable - with all their subsidiary (look at LX). So I think the focus is on LHR as a hub.

Germanwings (LCC subsidiary of LH) should be merger with someone but right now no one is there: TUIfly maybe mergers with Air Berlin, Condor (wants to stand alone but will face difficult times without a partner) and Eurowings (also partner/subsidiary of LH) are the candidates.

Of course those of you at bmi regional and baby could look at this in a positive light. LH has a very strong and expansive regional operation, perhaps it wil use this to grow bmi regional with new aircraft and routes etc...
It would be great to see some viable competition from a big name like LH taking on the likes of flybe and co in the UK regional market.

If Lufty, Virgin and bmi team up and the BA/American antitrust application is rejected, the world has truly gone mad....how i hate SRB.

Yeah, the real big story is the one with Virgin....:cool:

as far as the baby is concerned, I have heard it said several times that Lufty is looking for a low cost model, and are very interested in baby

Nigel in tears
 

So.... If bmi pilots moved over to Lufty's T's and C's they will be the best paid/looked after pilots in the UK?

I may have to put my CV in!

TAP

The interesting word that most people seem to have overlooked is the word 'verpflichted' which basically means 'must', 'required' or 'honour bound'.

It would seem, from reading the German press on this matter, that LH didn't have a great deal of choice and the purchase was pushed/driven by SMB. Remember, LH were forced to take this option if SMB didn't like any others. It was a done deal when the share options were signed for the original 30%. Lufthansa appear to have fingers in an awful lot of pies at the moment. With SAS, Austrian Arrows, BMI etc... plus a profit warning issued this week, the future looks to be a great deal of corporate indigestion trying to sort the whole mess out.

Whilst the fundamental business of LH is sound taking on this much dysfunctional baggage (not meaning BMI as such but also Austrian and SAS) could be a major headache for the company over the coming recession.

Should be intriguing to watch how it all gets digested.

edited for punctuation, punctuation, punctuation as my old school 'marm used to say :}

How will this mega airline look t LHR henceforth? I presume then that BMI will be entirely rebranded as LH with alot of BMI's current routes being scrapped?

AngryBaby
 

Clearly you are what you namesake suggets. I am an industry analyst and not airline staff as your post suggests.

In the eternal words:

Oh Scheiße.

Actually, I think it's a good idea... give BA a bit of competition out of LHR. :-)

The idea of combining VS and LH is not too bad either...

S.

Why should they be rebranded? Swiss hasn`t and BMI is a well known name in Europe with a good repu
Now bmiBaby is a few years old perhaps rename Lufthansa Junior
I`ll get me coat now

Ian

will be interesting to see if LH turnh BMI back into an airline that provides service to pax, then again LH don't exactly provide a welcoming or warm service to pax on their flights, so perhaps a good fit?

It's getting far too difficult to avoid flying with Star airlines within Europe now unfortunately, since there isn't a single one that provides a decent on-board service, in fact the ONLY Star airline I've seen providing a decent service is SQ, does anyone else?

I wouldn't be so quick to write off MAN. Between the mainline, Baby and Regional operations there, I think LH might put their expertise with operating multiple hubs to use. LH have already said MAN-India is a big market for them, the NYC area, possibly a west coast destination and MIA may have potential for service.
LH may be able to take advantage of any cost savings at Baby to expand growth on short haul European services, re-fleeting MAN with mainline A319 as long/medium haul service grows at LHR as short hauls like BRU, MME, LBA, etc are withdrawn and moving the 737s to CWL, EMA, BHX, or if they are feeling very brave, Scotland. Eventually those 733s will have to go, they are just not reliable enough for the type of scheduling WW demands of them, at least the ones at MAN.

I am merely SLF !! (but have worked at MAN & LPL) and joined this forum to find out about our housholds future flight plans.
We use MAN to ANU regularly and MAN-LAS also,
I am looking at seeing the only ANU direct flight outside of London possibly moving to LHR or more likely dropped altogether. Am I right not to feel optimistic???

Excellent News!!!
 

I have to say I am totally delighted with the news. Personally I think that the BMI group will really benefit from the LH takeover, which will NOT involve BMI losing its identity. As at the last 1/4, LH turned a 984mEuro profit, admittedly some of that from the sale of their share in the TUI group. and hopefully will have the financial muscle to offer everyone an outstanding future. In terms of Bmibaby I really believe that it is the best news possible. As someone who really cares for a certain person who is based at CWL you might say I have a vested interest, but I believe that the Bmibaby brand is something that LH simply cannot walk away from. It is inconceivable. All the folk at baby are great, and the only thing that has perhaps slightly held them back in the past has been a lack of investment as SMB has had other priorities in an increasingly difficult environment. So to all the Bmibaby folk, please carry on as you are doing, LH are going to enhance you not get rid of you. I really believe that by this time next year you will be bigger, stronger, and going where you should have been going a while ago. Best of luck to you all, and to those who read my previous stuff in the medical section I'm getting better!

PS. LH are going to have a fleet of 31 A319's :ok: :ok:

I generally find LH's cabin service very professional and friendly. However, their long haul business seats are chronic! - Until LH update their product, BA and VS have nothing to fear there.