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Skyflier
12th Jul 2004, 20:30
I see that with the start of the winter timetable the LHR-MME route will have four return services a day. (Still down one from the peak of five a few years back). Does anyone know if this is to last or are bmi just using a LHR slot up for a few weeks while they plan other things?

My interest is business travel to Durham, the current 3x rotation is an inflexible time-wasting nonsense for someone London based. I used to use the service every week when there was a reasonable frequency on it but have been flying to NCL instead. I would prefer to revert to MME where I find friendly helpful people (rather than attitude filled can't do NCL) but only if bmi are going to provide a sensible level of service.

Thanks for any info.

simonwa
12th Jul 2004, 20:41
(rather than attitude filled can't do NCL)

What is that supposed to mean ......???

Skyflier
12th Jul 2004, 20:57
(rather than attitude filled can't do NCL

What is that supposed to mean ......???)

Exactly what it says. I have flown 380000 miles in the last year, no where else do I regularly encounter the word no when the question hasn't been listened to, so many sighs or such self important staff who could do with learning the fundamentals of customer relations. Perhaps that sort of service is tolerated by customers of low costs and package tours which seem to be most of the business; though I would dispute that it is acceptable anywhere.

All of the above and some personal preference is why I would really like bmi to revert to a sensible schedule to MME.

johnwalton
12th Jul 2004, 21:45
Can't really agree that NCL staff have a "can't do" attitude. The service is certainly equivalent or better than MAN, LHR, all of the Spanish, Greek and French airports that i've visited.

low costs and package tours which seem to be most of the business
BA carries 500,000 passengers per year NCL-LHR. The ratio of Scheduled/IT flights at NCL is roughly 50/50.


Back to the orginal post, I imagine bmi will wait and see what bookings are like with 4 daily services before making any decisions.

onion
12th Jul 2004, 22:09
Would think that the Heathrow will stay at four over the winter timetable. It may revert back to three for the summer as bmi have felt in the past they can make more money on summer destinations such as Tenerife etc. Its good to know though that people are obviously being attracted back to using MME instead of NCL out of Heathrow.

Skyflier as you fly from Heathrow to Teesside did you find the earlier arrival of the morning flight at Teesside any help or a hinderance? Have been told that many of trans atlantic flights have had problems catching it.

FinalsToLand
13th Jul 2004, 10:24
no where else do I regularly encounter the word no when the question hasn't been listened to

Depends what the question is, they proberbally hear the same daft question so many times that they automatically say no.

F.T.L

Young Paul
13th Jul 2004, 17:35
"bmi have felt in the past that they can make more money from summer destinations like Tenerife etc"

But they went there in the winter only!

Skyflier
13th Jul 2004, 17:50
(Depends what the question is, they proberbally hear the same daft question so many times that they automatically say no.

F.T.L)

This presumably is a reflection of your own questioning habits, I'm not in the habit of asking daft questions, or for that matter, suffering fools gladly. Please check your spelling in posts before you suggest that other people are daft.

(Skyflier as you fly from Heathrow to Teesside did you find the earlier arrival of the morning flight at Teesside any help or a hindrance? Have been told that many of Trans Atlantic flights have had problems catching it.)

Thanks for the helpful replies. I found the earlier arrival of the morning flight at MME unhelpful. I agree, for many intercontinental arrivals, connection was hopeless. The arrival at MME at 8.00am was earlier than I would have liked and I was very happy with the 09.45 arrival. The only advantage of the earlier service was that the aircraft was overnight at Heathrow and not subject to ATC delays on approach. That said, I can never remember the northbound sector being more than 10 minutes late unless the weather was also severe. All in all, LHR-MME used to be a good service, I would just like to see it restored.

simonwa
13th Jul 2004, 18:01
johnwalton

I have to agree with you.. the service at NCL is far better than that of other airports. The staff at NCL actually care about their passengers, as it is a smaller airport environment, unlike that of LHR, MAN, STN etc.

The only reason "NO" would be the answer at NCL would obviously be if there was a reason to say NO, ie. passengers arriving late for check-in, passengers arriving late for boarding etc. Lets remember that the airport is also made up of many different companies, and by saying the airport has a "can't do" attitude, does this mean shops, handling agents, security, customer services??? (they are all operating by different companies).

mmeteesside
13th Jul 2004, 18:14
I'd like to see the LHR-MME route returned to what it used to be (5x) but at the present 3x, shortly to become 4x, they are having to use bigger aircraft (319/320) to cope with the traffic levels, so I guess if it was to return to 5x they would probably have to downgrade the aircraft type. Also another problem with returning the route to 5x is where they would fit in the 5th flight, as I can't see anywhere where they could slot it in the current pattern.

mmeteesside
MME Movements (http://www.mmemovements.tk)

Yellow Sun
13th Jul 2004, 18:32
they are having to use bigger aircraft (319/320) to cope with the traffic levels

The 319 is the smallest aircraft in the fleet. The Fokkers now operate mainly for bmi Regional ex LBA and in any case are due out of service in the first quarter of 2005. (only 2 will remain at the end of the 2004 summer timetable).

so I guess if it was to return to 5x they would probably have to downgrade the aircraft type

There isn't anything to downgrade to - see above.

YS

Tommyinyork
13th Jul 2004, 20:47
When were the Fokkers built and where will they be going?

johnwalton
13th Jul 2004, 21:21
F100s were manufactured by Fokker (http://www.fokker.nl/) (Stork Aviation) in the Netherlands in the early 1990s. I believe the first one was delivered in early 1994.

No idea where they'll be going, but a search (http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?nr_of_rows=82&aircraft_genericsearch=Fokker%2070%2F100&maxres=500&keywords=bmi&keywrange=all&first_this_page=0&page_limit=15&sort_order=photo_id+DESC&thumbnails=&engine_version=6.0&nr_pages=6&page=) on Airliners.net suggests at least 1 is going to Skywest airlines.

GrahamK
13th Jul 2004, 21:44
Perhaps the additional MME flight is just to keep hold of slots at LHR, Just like the 7th BA LHR-NCL-LHR is used for (when it operates)

Mooncrest
14th Jul 2004, 15:07
I'd like to know what the future holds for BMI generally at LBA, given that we've got four FK100's here at the moment. If they're
on their way out by 2005, I guess Mainline will put an A319 on the LHR route. I'd be surprised to see the return of the Regional ERJ145s on routes like EDI and CDG as they're often too busy for this a/c (60 - 70 pax quite often).
As for Baby, I've requested any info from
folks around EMA (see Poor Old Baby thread). Anybody's guess at the moment. Ho hum.. ;)

worldwidelad
15th Jul 2004, 09:58
I have to agree with the original post....

I have found staff with bad attitude's in NCL, LPL and NEMA, the regional airports. There are so many jobsworths there aswell!

I think in Liverpool they must get bored!!