Ya, thats new news. Dublin base closed and DUB-LHR reduced to 4 daily. How they expect to be able to compete with Aer Lingus's up to 13 times daily service is anyones guess. The new LHR originating timetable is going to be useless for a lot of Dublin based business passenger as there's be no way that they'll be able to get into central London for 9.

And yet Etihad has increased its DUB services to 10 wkly. I think you need to look at the individual airlines' circumstances, rather than blaming things on the Irish economy.

BD has been in trouble for quite a while now; I think that much is well known. So has EI (although admittedly the state of the Irish economy hasn't helped them); however, EI's LGW adventure was always going to be difficult and probably ill-advised in the first place.

you need to consider traffic flows. I might syggest that a lot of Ehtiads traffic could be construction industry people going back and forth between Abu Dhabi and Ireland as the industry is dead in Ireland and not so hot the UK the traditional place for surplus Irish construction people go.

In fact in recent years the flow was from the UK to Ireland.

Etihad offer a one hop service from DUB to Australia, S Africa etc. Why would anyone go two hops via LHR etc? What's the market Dublin to Australia - is it 60,000 pa? Most holiday makers and visiting friends and family.

Personally I like BMI but 4 a day isn't very frequent unless they have timed for onward connections. Reduce capacity raise prices?

Maybe EY are hoping to pick up an increase in traffic to Aus and NZ from Ireland. Personally I know a number of people moving "down" (and none of them worked in construction).

As to the BD announcement, 33 cabin crew servicing 1 aircraft with 150 seats seems a little high, or am I missing something.

JAS

So will Bmi cut back the frequency on all high frequency routes, ie BHD to LHR or the Scottish routes to LHR?

Can see DUB ending up on the!!!! pile with AMS and BRU! BD do very well on this routes, cant see why they want to drive it into the ground.

it's 2 aircraft, with one nightstopping DUB the other LHR, and not all crew are full time.

Looking at the BHD timetable, it seems to be going back to 8X daily with the reinstatement of the BD96/97 rotation from the start of the summer schedules. This was withdrawn at the start of the 09/10 winter schedules.

I was SLF on the first NCL - BRU flight on Sunday complete with my complementary choc's. <15 people on the flight. Will be interesting to see how the route operates. I have been flying it most weeks for the last 2.5yrs.

Nice aircraft though.

Why have Regional added a 1 to their flight numbers?

All regional flights became four figure numbers from begining of January, I believe to differentiate between mainline & regional.

BD: LHR-VIE double daily A320
Code-Share with OS, 5 daily flights LHR-VIE with BD/OS and connection to Eastern Europe/Middle East
Pressemeldungen}

I just recieved an email of bmi saying they are dropping business class on the LHR-DUB route from 27th of Jan, but they will have economy flexible instead.......

Economy flexible will include lounge access and seats at the front of the aircraft.

I really wish bmi would pick a business plan and stick to it!!

It's five years since they adopted the current shorthaul product, so it's been a while, but the motivation this time is to stop thieving government taxes which target 'business/premium' seating supplements e.g. £22 each way LHR-EDI extra because of a 'differentiated cabin'...make the seating the same and remove the divider and it's a flat tax per seat.

whilst the cost saving is substantial, it could further alienate loyal Diamond Club passengers.....

New route LHR to Vienna on behalf of Austrian. More farmed out flying, saves jobs though.

Also no more free food on board for Diamond/Silver/Blue Plus pax without an Economy Flexible ticket but seems Lounge access/food still OK as long as you are Diamond/Silver.

bmi are really in a mess at the moment. Constant changing of flight times ex-LHR and DUB. Their computer system/Diamond Club stats should be declared a disaster area. Can't even make a booking at this moment in time as they are experiencing "Technical difficulties".

However, no problems with the crews - flight and cabin - who are all A1.

Their cabins and crew are generally top notch but i'm sick of all this changing.

I think they should offer a service similar to lufthansa. Its a good product and its realiable. I've been flying with midland for a long time and i think it may be time for a change. If Aer lingus join an alliance again then bmi will have had it on the DUB route.


When you have :

Mainline - business on some routes & flexible economy on others. Free food and drink to diamond club (blue plus and higher) and now its going for blue plus. And the attempts at longhaul eg Mumbai, Vegas, Barbados, Antigua & chicago.

Regional - Free drinks and snacks and the only profitable one of the lot

Baby - bmi jumping on the LCC band wagon using ex-mainline cast offs (originally).


Bmi are such a confused mess!! Bring back the diamond service of the 90's and early 00's.


The saying "Jack of all trades and master of none!" comes to mind for bmi.

:ugh::ugh:

Takes quite an investment of time and money to reorganise those behind the scenes processes and procedures before you end up with a well oiled machine like LH. The German non-leisure market also has rather less cut throat competition from LCCs driving fares down to rock bottom.