There is legitimate interest in the building so why not debate it? Doesn't mean no one cares about the jobs - in fact a secure future for the Hall might be the best thing to protect some jobs. And don't blame anyone here for the lost jobs - blame Bish and the other muppets who were put in charge of the business over the years who managed to turn the UK's second airline into a basket case that even Lufthansa couldn't sort out.

Good News?

From Flight Global
All copy right etc theirs

"Lufthansa has had to wait longer than expected to offload the regional subsidiary of BMI.
The sale, to a group of UK investors known as "Granite Aviation", had been due to complete at the end of last year. However, the process stalled owing to the fact that an investment group, rather than another airline, was purchasing BMI Regional, a source close to the matter explained.
"The process has been very slow, because Granite only comprises three people and has no existing airline infrastructure in place," he said.
In particular, there were no support services in place for BMI Regional's fleet of aircraft, which took time to negotiate, the source said. Now there is a transitional service agreement in place whereby BMI will support BMI Regional for the first six months after sale completion.
The share purchase agreement has been finalised, along with proof of funding, the source said. BMI Regional has also secured an agreement to continue operating four of the five Embraer ERJ-145s it has been wet-leasing from BMI. The regional subsidiary additionally operates a fleet of four ERJ-135s and 15 ERJ-145s.
Ian Woodley, Graeme Ross and Robert Sturman, who have prominent roles within Granite, are understood to be the likely candidates to head up BMI Regional following its acquisition. Woodley and Ross were the founders of Business Air, which was sold to British Midland in 1996 and changed its name to BMI Regional. Sturman was CEO of British World Airlines for a decade, before working in various aviation advisory roles.
A leaked memo issued to staff at BMI Regional at the end of last year stated: "The intended buyer plans to continue the airline as an independent entity and will operate from the current head office in Aberdeen and its bases already established in the UK. The new owner will further develop the regional network in both the UK and Europe."
Meanwhile, International Airlines Group recently pipped Virgin to the post to acquire BMI for £172.5 million, in a deal that is scheduled to complete in March 2012."

Good news! :O:D

Maybe BMIregional will become Business Air :ok:

As long as they don't rebrand it with the same name as there company

Somehow Granite Air, Granite Aviation or even worse Gran Air doesn't have as good a ring to it as Business Air

I just hope the deal's set in stone now! :ok:

Bit of deja-vu creeping in. Took nearly the same length of time to organise Airlines of Britain buyout of II back in 1996. LH/LX departed in Jan/Feb 1996 and II entered the Airlines of Britain Group in April 1996.

The irony was those few months where Ian and Graeme had 100% ownership were the best I can recall. It all went downhill from April 1996 onwards....

Anyway good news that both of them are back and hopefully it is onwards and upwards for regional.

There is a reasonable level of hotel capacity around EMA but I do know that at least one other organsiation is considering investing in further hotels space in the area because they see the need.

The race track has not got the F1 Grand Prix (and that was a debacle) but that would have been relevant for one long weekend a year and you would not build a hotel for that alone. However, the track operates virtually 365 days of the year (probably about 360) and there is also the exhibition centre, both of which are on the up since the return of the track to the Wheatcroft family ownership. Room capacity for some of the bigger race meetings is certainly in short supply.

Castle Donington isn't just the airport and the track, though, and there are current plans in place for further expansion of the business and light industrial areas in or near the village, which may attract a need for further hotel rooms.

Many of the hotels in the area are of the budget variety, maybe there's a need for at least one slightly more upmarket hotel with conference and leisure facilities (and good sound proofing!)

Any news??
 

All gone very quiet. Any news anywhere?! With the IAG deal looking to be completed in the next few weeks it's gone awfully quiet on the regional front...

Theres a load of posts in the BMI Baby thread which should be in here...

If a Mod could move them in?? :)

As for news, i wish there were some.

Has anyone heard anything? It has gone very very quiet.

ATC in Frankfurt are on strike this week and Lufthansa are cancelling over 100 flights per day. Would imagine this is a rather more urgent priority for Lufthansa management than the future of the 3 bmi airlines.

Apparently Easterns MD Richard Lake was being shown around the BMIr offices in Dyce last week - witnessed by many people.
Has anyone from BMIr been told what that was about - surely he was not there just for a cuppa...

Is that a fact or are you trolling

Quite possible. bmir are leasing a Saab 2000 from Eastern to cover Embraer maintenance in March, so Lake probably would not have passed up an opportunity to be seen in their offices just to cause some curiosity. bmir are putting the Eastern S2000 on ABZ-NWI instead of the 135, where the competition is....oh yes, an Eastern Saab 2000! It's almost like they have a death wish.

So in less than two weeks we could be owned by IAG. Still nothing heard about the granite deal. Wonder what willy has planned for us...

Van G

Willie Walsh used that fearful word "restructure" :eek: for BMI Baby and Regional.gulp !

Nigel

Well short term if BMIr isnt sold off before IAG/BA gets their hands on it i would guess that BMIR will be brought under the Cityflyer brand, any routes making a profit might be kept but i expect the majority of the operation would be wound up under IAG ?

cs

I don't believe that being part of IAG would be a Good Thing for the majority of Regional staff. It is worth looking at the statement from December;

IAG - International Airlines Group - News Release
IAG are only really interested in the Heathrow slots, Regional being amalgamated into Cityflyer? The equipment doesn't fit, so there may only be limited opportunities for crews. However, we are not at that stage yet. Even though the information black hole is unbelievably frustrating I hope there may be some indication soon as to what the hell is going on.

Don't BA (and therefore IAG) still own 15% of Flybe? They could ditch Regional there, the same way that they did BACon...