Bmi new domestic routes

[jbird11]

Bmi is soon to confirm 2 new routes from Apr 2004

ABZ-LHR-LHR 4 daily services
INV-LHR-INV 1 daily service

Equip unknown but likely to be the A320

[MEFLYBE]

Flights are as follows:

LHR-ABZ
123456 319
1234567 320
1234567 320
12345 7 320

LHR-INV
1234567 321

Regards

Mike

[KAT TOO]

I gather that regional are soon to announce MAN-INV & either MAN-LCY or LBA-LCY.

Also a single rotation from EMA to Vienna? each day + LBA -EDI on a SAT morning

[MEFLYBE]

i wouldnt imagine MAN-INV with Eastern already being on the route. Or MAN-LCY. A LBA-LCY ER3 service maybe possible. EMA-VIE, no way! IMO

Regards

Mike

[chiglet]

EZE on the MAN-INV route are "running" an average 10-18 pax on a "good" day. 5-10 on t'others. This on a 19 seater. AND yes, I know that this isn't a "Well Publicised Route", but a BabyJet? :rolleyes:
watpiktch

[jack-oh]

This is good news for Inverness as they have been lobbying for a Heathrow slot for some considerable time. It doesn't surprise me that the competition is smelling out EZE route structure and jumping in where profit is to be made.

[Mouser]

Hang on , are you telling me this is a INV-LHR A320 service from a town of 40,000ish, when a City of 700,000 has no chance of a LHR service.I wonder sometimes who are these burkes that give the nod to these routes. Example LPL -Brussels binned 100,000 pax in a year, then I know lets try LPL-Girona in direct comp with EZY twice daily(Barcelona).

[Frankfurt_Cowboy]

Things would be different if Liverpool was in Scotland.

[Buster the Bear]

EU and regional development grants, just ask how much Ryanair have gained from these for their new routes from Prestwick. This assistance is publicity for instance, and not direct airport subsidies. This is why Ryanair are pushing for longer runways on the Scottish Isles and want access to Kinloss and Leuchars.

Baby have done the same using grants available in Wales, (Probably Air Wales have done so also?) once this aid dries up, the planes will move on unless the routes are really productive.

If the funds are available and jobs/prospects are raised long-term, then I have no objections.
http://www.gifs.net/animate/bear3p.gif

[Mouser]

We know Liverpool is not in Scotlland , but the question was why a town up in the sticks in Scotland should get a LHR service when the capital of culture 2008 has got no chance of getting a service in to LHR

Buster the Bear, what on earth are you talking about its a 40,000 town VS 700,000 city and an A320 180 seats.

[KAT TOO]

Eastern might not carry many pax (on its J32) but for bmi-regional kicking Eastern is more important(ABZ-NWI!!)

A mini jet will increase traffic if the timings are right and as said else where some tax payers funds along the way will help for a while.

[MD11FAN]

I agree entirely with comments ref. Inverness/Liverpool services. I lived in the Aberdeen area for 4 years(1991-1995) and visited Inverness several times, I can't see how a service to Heathrow is justified at present. BA(citiexpress are whatever they are called this week) operate 3 x daily into LGW and Easy operate a daily flight into LTN and LGW. BA pulled the LHR service @3 years ago, I assume to a shortage of slots and more profitable services could be operated. Not so long ago there were rumours that the BMI services to LBA and MME could be under threat due to the slots being used for flights elsewhere. How come BMI suddenly have an excess of slots(or have they pulled a service elewhere?)
Regarding the proposed LHR-ABZ route, I doubt this can support a BMI service (especially 4 x daily). Since 1990(if not earlier), BA has held the service at 7 x daily on weekdays. The a/c capacity has also been reduced on many flights; due to reduced demand? I have flown the route many times(admittedly not on the first/last flights of the day) and the flights have never been even near to full.

Regarding LPL - LHR, I am amazed that a carrier(BMI?) have not started flights on this route. Can the MAN-LHR service really justify @ 17 flights/day(weekdays) when there is no service to Liverpool??

[rjdude]

Well there is talk of routes being cut from April 2004, within mainline, regional and baby.

I am very skeptical that bmi would take such a gamble as starting ABZ-LHR. BA have cut cacpacity and frequency on the route over the past few years and according to the latest BAA figures, the number of pax using ABZ airport has continued to fall.

With the serious finanical position bmi finds itself in, they would be better to consolidate the routes they have, before starting new ones.

[MEFLYBE]

I have to say that I think Bmi will do well on both routes, Bmi regional has continued to expand it's ABZ activities and as market awareness develops, so pax will be more willing to try Bmi to LHR as opposed to BA. A 4 times daily schedule as well as having the first northbound flight of the day will put Bmi in a good position. Bmi has a good, if not better short-haul product out of LHR than BA, I would certainly chose Bmi anytime over BA, also, Bmi will have some very good offers when the route opens.

The one thing about the INV service is that it does'nt combine particularly well with long haul connections out of LHR. However, the flight will co-incide with several of the STAR allicance long-haul departures, creating connecting traffic. However, what would you rather fly to London on, a new Airbus or a cramped old 146??

Regards

Mike

[carbootking]

remember air omega r going to start a service from stn to abz soon so may be their getting on that act to block that.

[Deeko01]

Firstly, Inverness is a City not a town OK. Secondly, the argument is that BMI are simply not interested in Liverpool and all its workings, they operate from Manch why go to Liverpool, suerly thats for another operator to come in and launch a Liverpool-Heathrow service.

Easy and BA better watch out on the Inverness-London route, me thinks BMI are about to make a killing on this run!

Good for Inverness!

[Mouser]

Inverness is a town, 40,000ish is town, call it a City if you want but town size it is.700,000 is City.

[Deeko01]

No its a city regardless of its population Inverness is a CITY

[PPRuNe Radar]

Mouser

The UK Government disagree with you .....

City status is not, and never has been, a right which can be claimed by a town fulfilling certain conditions. The use of specific criteria could lead to a town claiming city status as of right, which in turn might devalue the honour. All applications are considered on their individual merits.

Thus it has nothing to do with population size.

[Mouser]

OK, its a City the size of a town, but f--- knows why BMI are throwing a A320 at it .

[Frankfurt_Cowboy]

Because the fellas at Planet Hollyrood give them some money to do it???

[KAT TOO]

Whats interesting is that its going to night stop in Aberdeen and i hear the word `wet lease to regional` in vibes from the frozen north. All announced tomorrow, so we shall see!!!!!:cool:

[Data Dad]

Well well!

Just looked at the timetable section (its not listed under bookings at the moment) of the bmi website and sure enough the ABZ- LHR flights are in there! And its 5x daily monday - friday 4x Sat/Sun :ok: Nothing on the Inverness though.

About time! Been waiting 20+ years for someone to give BA some real competition on this route

DD

[no, no, no]

Its about time someone challanegd BA - bmi do it successfully on the EDI/GLA/MAN routes, and were better than BA on the Belfast route which resulted in BA pulling. Also, bmi have more than 50% market share on MANABZ, so why not LHR?

I think the 5x service will do great, especially as the timings will provide possibly the best schedule on the market. Also put in competition with BA/AF/KL for interline pax - and the STAR allaince is the largest in the world so why not...

the INV flight may not be that appealing to most, but why do easy chose to use valuable LGW slots for it?????? It is the gateway to the highlands, and LHR will offer greater world wide connections from all over for people to onnect in of/ out of.

Heard there is a press conference in ABZ at 10:30 this morning when all of this, plus some other bits will be announced along with a new med LHR route - and from what I hear NO mainline or regional routes will actually be cancelled - along with the new Venice, Alicante and Tenerife routes, the signs are good for the airline. No one crictise BA when they swap all their services LGW vs LHR, or start a load of new LGW services...... give them a chance!

[PPRuNe Radar]

Mouser

bmi are wary of operating in to Liverpool after they left an A320 parked there over night recently

http://www.jetblasters.com/albums/album13/Liverpool_02.jpg

Only joking ;)

[egnxema]

erm.....

I went on bmi's website, Timetables, and all I could see were the connecting flights LHR-MAN/MAN-ABZ, plus one direct flight per day LHR - ABZ

Am I doning something wrong??

[KAT TOO]

Press release at 10.30

Details as expected with five flights per day from ABZ plus one per day for LHR-INV

Also new is the EMA-ABZ daily using the slack period between the (EMA) based 145 EMA-BRU service. At least the BMI brass won't have to drive to MAN any more when visiting ABZ.

Glasgow -Knock is new the boys and Girls at GLA won't know what to do if the are not flying north or South!!

And `wait for it` due to the sucsess of the ABZ-NWI service that is now going to 5 rotations a day!!!!!!!!!! hahahaha.

Sounds like 6 sector days for the ABZ crews!!!!!! no we'ed love to do 6 sectors, no problem for these management types!

[no, no, no]

Also announced today that they will be starting Heathrow to Naples and a new daily Manchester - Norwich service.....described on the website as "the growing markets of MAN & NWI"......

[Copenhagen]

So, what are they cutting then to get these seven rotations into Heathrow... I presume its Madrid, Milan, and a few Dublins.

[niknak]

With the exception of the low cost operators, virtually every scheduled service to/from Inverness (as with nearly all HIA Airports), is subsidised in some form or other.

If the E.U. competition blokes gave Ryanair a rest, they'd have a field day in that part of the McNorth. :E

[Findo]

Just give us a little explanation of that last posting niknak.

[MD11FAN]

EMA-ABZ, MAN-Norwich(What's the 3 letter code?)....aren't these already operated by Eastern a/w?? Looks like BMI are going after more of their routes.. Could we have ABZ-HUY please? This route would be so much better with a BMI jet. Eastern a/w operate it 5 times daily(also using J41s on some flights) so there must be demand.

[Exospheric]

Knock - Glasgow, BMI Regionals first foray into Ireland, if they are as successful as MYL in Knock they should do well...

[682ft AMSL]

BMI Regionals first foray into Ireland

Not quite. They have operated a daily LBA-ORK for around 18 months now.

682

[FlyboyBen]

Surely, bmi would have employed some detailed market research before opening up an INV/LHR route. In this day and age of tight purse strings etc, they wouldn't make a hasty decision to open up a new route without researching it.

Its not a case of either liverpool or inverness. I'm sure if they considered the LIV/LHR route economic and profitable, they would open it up. I'm sure there is a joke there about scousers and non "no-frills" (ie more expensive) airlines, but I won't say it.

As for the ABZ / LHR route - fantastic news for the north-east. Nothing could be better for the consumer than a bit of competition, so roll on the price wars!!!!

[KAT TOO]

I have just had another look at the bmi press release, missed first time round that they are also doing MAN-NWI!

[KAT TOO]

So its MAN-NWI-ABZ-NWI-MAN! thought 6 sector days were too much for the management types;)

[T Hairy Henry]

OK OK OK!!!

Enough about logic of the new route selection, where did BMI get the LHR slots to operate these new services?:confused:

[Scottie]

They're probably using their existing slots at LHR.

Let's face it BMI aren't doing this because it's a goldmine, bmi is finding it very difficult to make money these days with all the competition so they're scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for routes where there is little competition.

[nitefiter]

bmir,s first foray into Ireland,Cork aside,we used to operate EMA- BFS,EMA-DUB,EMA-BHD.