What routes will BA keep?
 

I have heard Belfast mentioned
Will they keep Dublin?
middle East routes?

I thought SMB still owned the Hall?

If he does, he'll no doubt have a lucrative, watertight lease in place....:D

Nope, as far as I'm aware, it got lobbed into the deal with Lufty and so is owned by bmi. This is not necessarily a good thing!

Wadn't there some rumour about some large estate agency having been approached last year ?

The Hall is near the circuit, motorways and EMA; it could easily become a four or five star hotel. Premium rooms in the original Hall, cheaper rooms in the newer blocks behind. Much more sensible proposition than an airline :D

Photos of the interior here.

Shhh. I'm straight down to the office of my asset manager/financial planner the moment it comes on the market.

I'm afraid that option isn't really open. There is already more than enough hotel capacity at EMA and since the F1 debacle at Donington, then spending the money required on the place is not such a smart prospect.

To be honest, with all of the running costs, I have a feeling that you'd struggle to give it away at the moment.

Please could you enlighten us non-petrolheads, unless you're referring to a budget hotel that tried to open?

What an odd little place, you wouldn't think it had been the HQ of a fairly large airline since the year dot. Everything looks so... temporary.

Its a stunning building mind and is sure to fetch a few quid... Maybe just a little black in the generally red BD balance sheet. :\

Oh it's a long and dull tale of pipe dreams, idiocy, Bernie Ecclestone and a chancer named Simon Gillett.

Basically, Gillett persuaded a lot of people that he could take the F1 race from Silverstone to Donington Park. He signed a long term deal with Ecclestone but then couldn't raise the funding to bring the track and facilities up to spec.

It dragged on for ages and nearly bankrupted Donington Park in the process. They did some work, but it was shoddy and consisted of digging a big hole and causing the track to subside and also wrecking a load of perfectly good tarmac around the rest of the track.

Eventually Bernie pulled the plug and the race went back to Silverstone and Donington Park was left with nothing having given up the motoGP race to Silverstone as well in pursuit of F1.

So Donington is now a shadow of itself and in motorsport terms has been put backwards 10 years. It's now operating again, but without the draw of big races, then the need for massive new hotels is fairly minimal.

Can't see The Hall being a viable attraction on the market as offices again if and/or when the bmi group move out... It's just too far from anywhere really significant with a limited catchment area for a clerical workforce (witness bmi's need to bus staff in from cities/towns in the region each day), too difficult to upgrade to true high-tech standards, and too large for a start up. Only realistic chance of a sale, I'd have thought, was for a major hotel/hospitality chains to buy it and convert it into a hotel cum conference venue

Andy

Whispers today about the Hall for new BA call centre.

Royal - you may well have better information than me, but I can't think of something less architecturally suited to a call centre than a pseudo-castle.

Call centres are usually in large open plan offices, with plenty of network and telephone cabling. Also helps if it's easy to reach by some form of public transport, as it means the low paid staff who talk to customers on the phone can get there easily.

I suppose the new/modern office building next to the hall would be suited to a call centre... just not the hall itself.

Hastings House would be perfect for a call centre.

Dunno what anyone could do with the Hall, it isn't particularly suited to use as an office, and as has been stated there is enough hotel capacity around EMA.

Doesn't BA have perfectly good call centre in Newcastle?

May be the National Trust would be interested from a historical point? Murder mystery weekends perhaps? Ghosts? ladies walking through walls? Headless people?:)

There are hundreds of jobs likely to be lost and you're talking fondly about a bloody building!!!!:ugh:

Quote: "Murder mystery weekends perhaps? Ghosts? ladies walking through walls? Headless people?"

Headless people often seen around the top floor, some say they are called management, others call them ghosts of the past. Same thing really... :O