Bmibaby summer schedule 2005

[BDWW]

The summer 2005 schedule is released tomorrow and here is what looks like it might include.
EMA looks like it may be going down to a 4 a/c base with Dublin, Toulouse and Ibiza completely going. Nice, and Bordeaux have been transferred to BHX. Paris looks like it might possibly be going to BD regional as it has been loaded with a new flightcode between 250-260, all baby flights are 4 digits and begin with 5 from EMA.
Cork will be starting from BHX also a few flights a week from MME. MME will still be a 1 a/c base with flights also to CDG.
Cardiff will be a 2 a/c base serving the same destinations as now but Faro will be once a week.
MAN will be a 3 a/c base with Bordeaux returning.

[Lite]

I did hear that bmi regional will be taking over the flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle, on top of the flights to Brussels which were transferred the year before last. Rumours of some domestic or Amsterdam flights also going to regional, with baby concentrating on their original forté the bucket-and-spade routes.

Any more on this would be v. interesting.

[Scottie Dog]

From the WW website:

summer 2005 on sale dates




bmibaby will be going on sale with its summer 2005 flights on Tuesday 30 November 2004. Routes will be announced and on sale on the following dates:

from on sale date
Nottingham East Midlands Tuesday 30 November 2004
Birmingham International Wednesday 1 December 2004
Manchester Thursday 2 December 2004
Cardiff & Durham Tees Valley Friday 3 December 2004

[egnxema]

13 Destinations:-

route fare (one way, including taxes and charges)
Amsterdam £21.94
Belfast (International) £21.94
Edinburgh £21.94
Glasgow (International) £21.94
Cork £21.94
Jersey £21.94
Prague £26.94
Malaga £26.94
Alicante £31.94
Palma £31.94
Murcia £31.94
Faro £31.94
Paris (Charles de Gaulle) £40.95

Seems a long way down from the dizzy days of 24 bmibaby destinations!

[phil_2405]

Does anyone have a definitive list of routes baby have launched and subsequently dropped from NEMA?

I wonder if EZY will take this opportunity to increase their presence at NEMA??

[egnxema]

Phil,

That's it mate - above. 13 routes. Copied from the website.

[EastMids]

Looks like four base a/c if CDG goes to Regional (please, please) or five if its stays with the Baby. Seem to remember them talking eight or nine at one time.

Looks like a good recipe for NEMA growth - NOT! :rolleyes:

[willywick]

Andy,

I'm affraid it will still be operated by baby. It's a pitty BD didn't decide to change the diapers on that route and put in regional.

Good news is that EMA-CDG is up to three daily.

[737James]

I believe Ema-Ibz is still being considered and may be launched at a later date with the usual June to Sept season.
Im not surprised at the Dropping of Dublin as it has been under performing for quite a while now with Ryanair on the route but recently the loads have been better. The Knock flights were only on trial last year and it turned out how i expected with the route performing badly.
Nice is a bit more of a surprise to me but it is one of the more expensive routes to operate and the midlands region cant support flights from Ema and Bhx so Bhx has been given a chance to prove itself.

[alterego]

Baby are already on winter timetable v6.0, so not sure if anything can be taken as final for next summer.

Probably depends on numbers of A/C in fleet, success of BHX, number crews leaving/recruited, etc, etc.

Would be surprised if EMA went down to 4 A/C personally.

[737James]

It definitly won't be a 4 aircraft base at Ema next summer I make it a 5 aircraft base on the present timetable but i expect a few tweaks in that between now and summer.
As Alterego has said alot depends on how Bhx goes and how the bookings go, what our competition do and how the expected fleet growth goes.

[BDWW]

If baby is going to continue with CDG why has the flight number been changed to the old BD flight number? from 5011-5017 to between 250-260???
Also CDG has been a very solid route for baby but not spectacular enough really to require an extra rotation, especially since EDI is going to be only twice a day!

[Ian Farquharson]

BHX Programme now announced:-

12 routes:-

ALC
AMS
BFS
BOD
ORK
EDI
AGP
MJV
NCE
NOC
PMI
PRG

Ian

[Daza]

At last some new city pairs!! BOD and NCE (BA only operated this route once a week) and increases on all othe routes!! will BHX be BMI Baby's biggest base in the summer???
Daza

[Hood]

Some interesting times ahead for baby next year indeed..
additional aircraft for BHX rumoured to be 3 bmi Fokkers due to non available 737's..4a/c operation at EMA and so called management having overcrewed BHX just to appease joiners from maersk.. managing director leaving.. BALPA in official dispute with the company and now 78% of BALPA pilots rejecting latest sad offer from the company. Ballot on strike action next? Not to mention the 25 or so pilots leaving ....oh and then there is the email asking those who were BHX bound if they will take another base! All rumours of course.

[Tom the Tenor]

My ol' hobby horse of a second MAN-ORK has been restored too! Daily ex-Saturday into Cork at 0825 and in the evening again in at 2140. A good long day in Manchester.

MME a nice surprise with 3 times weekly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

BHX will benefit too with good timings in the evening and should put manners on some of the RE fares. What a bonus BHX is to Cork with the dropping of the LGW service in January.

Bmi baby have been a great boon to Cork Airport. Now, if they would only do CAT II approaches like lots of other carriers! However, the cranes should be gone by March, hopefully!

[The Flying Lip]

If, as is generally noised abroad, Cardiff Airport management is holding Ryanair at bay, to give baby a free hand - when will baby repay the compliment by putting more resources there?

Everytime I fly with baby from Cardiff, it is packed. A textbook lesson in how to build a brand and get it into the public conciousness. Baby is pretty much part of the scenery round here now.

My sources tell me that yields, particularly on Spanish, Czech and Scottish destinations, are impressive.

But at what point will CIAL say, let's give Ryanair a go, if they will commit three aircraft, since baby seem to be "fat dumb and happy" with just two.....?

[EastMids]

If EMA-CDG is to stay with Baby despite the wierd flight number changes (back to the old British Midland numbers) and the rather high fare for CDG compared to AMS for example (I had presumed a prelude to putting more costs back in with a Regional operation?), I think this again says something about Baby's strategy.

The Channel Tunnel rail link moves from Waterloo to Saint Pancras in two years time, and with that comes one-station, one-change services between Nottingham Derby Leicester and Paris and Brussels. Journey times are likely to be of the order of four to four and a half hours city centre to city centre - not much different to the time for the total journey with an air component. Just as the air market between London and Paris and Brussels has hugely declined since Eurostar started, I anticipate a similar significant shift to rail from the East Midlands region to those destinations once the new international station at St Pancras comes online. If Baby is putting more capacity into Paris now, its going to come out again in two or three years time. Far better they focus on something else / develop another market, and bmi put a full-service offer into Paris which can be used amongst other things for connecting traffic.

Andy

[BDWW]

It has been confirmed to staff at EMA that it will become a 4 a/c base with Paris transferring to bmi (possibly on a fokker).

[rock737]

Hopefully this will get replaced by an A319 and the 145 could be replaced by an A319 as well doing the BRU but i would really like to see bmibaby 5 a/c bmi 2 x A319 and 1 145 for the ABZ but i guess that is wishful thinking.

[MarkBHX]

Why doesn't anyone try any new routes from bhx? These "new" routes are already operated by somebody or have been in the not so distant past! I'm surprised Pisa or central Europe(with the exception of Prague) haven;t been exploited from bhx. I no VZ used to operate to Pisa, but their 320's were just too big as with most of their destinations they have dropped-AMS,BVA,DUB,BFS etc

[330-Purser]

i would really like to see bmibaby 5 a/c bmi 2 x A319 and 1 145 for the ABZ but i guess that is wishful thinking

The ABZ was dropped by BMIR quite a while ago. The 145 just sits around til 2pm now after its done the morning BRU rotation.

Only Eastern on the ABZ run now. Lets be honest, the only reason BMIR started ABZ was to p:mad: ss Eastern off anyway!

[eggc]

Manchesters offerings are out...

Belfast (International) £4.99
Cork £9.99 £26.94
Knock £9.99 £26.94
Jersey £14.99
Bordeaux £19.99
Prague £19.99
Alicante £19.99
Malaga £19.99
Palma £19.99
Murcia £29.99

Rgds

Steve

[EastMids]

It has been confirmed to staff at EMA that it will become a 4 a/c base with Paris transferring to bmi (possibly on a fokker).

Excellent... Some sense at last. So now all they need to do is transfer AMS, GLA, EDI and BFS back to BMI (possibly using the four Fokkers that have no future in the airline otherwise) and the entire tawdry Baby affair at EMA will largely have been laid to rest with the exception of the Med and PRG which are the two things Baby seem to be able to run on a consistant basis.

[BDWW]

Does anybody know what the exact situation is with the EMA-CDG route? its still being sold on the baby website but is it goin back to regional? As the new summer schedule starts at the end of march i would have thought it would start selling on the bmi website by now? Or is it that management haven't made a firm decision to what they are doing yet?

[willywick]

According to Amadeus, the flights to CDG are using Embraer 145 aircraft, why the flights aren't being sold on flybmi.com is still a mystery to me!

[BDWW]

Willywick, ure right! it does look like EMA-CDG will be on an ERJ-145. Just done a bit more investigating and you can actually buy bmi tickets EMA-CDG through opodo.co.uk from March onwards (although for about £400!)
Also it looks like EMA-NCE is also back in the baby schedule, only at the weekends though, but it also has a BD flight code and u can buy them through Opodo, also operating on a ERJ-145.
What the hell is going on???? and why are they not being sold on flybmi.com????:confused:

[Lite]

The routes continue to be marketed at present as bmibaby routes, because for passengers in the midlands looking for low-cost flights from the bmi group, the first website they check is not flybmi.com, but bmibaby.com. I have heard that the route may end up being a bmibaby flight "operated by bmi regional" but I find it far more likely that the route will end up being for bmi mainline.

If it is, its good news for the poor midlands-based diamond club pax, who have been up in arms since they lost their priviledges. Hopefully, more routes will go to mainline ..?

[EastMids]

If it is, its good news for the poor midlands-based diamond club pax, who have been up in arms since they lost their priviledges.

We haven't been up-in-arms - given all the other crap at EMA (long queues, etc) we've been flying from BHX and getting miles on other airlines instead! :p

Andy

[bmibaby.com]

One of the biggest areas of suggestion that bmibaby gets from pax, is that the airline ought to offer diamond club pax the ability to earn miles on WW flights, in the same way they used to be able to when the flights were operated by BD. baby releases a small number of seats for each flight where diamond club passengers can SPEND their miles, but even as soon as these come on sale, summer season seats are snapped up very fast. I have heard that diamond club rewards may be an option to win over business pax more for WW, but its been a rumour going round for a very long time, pretty much since baby began. I think it would be a great idea, especially as Aeroplan miles could be earned for Zip flights from Air Canada, Mileage Plus miles on Ted flights & EuroBonus miles for Snowflake flights.

bmi regional are using based ERJ-145s for daily flights to Paris CDG & Brussels for summer 2005, and weekend flights to Nice. If the project is successful, I've been told it could be the same for Amsterdam!

[EastMids]

Not that bothered about the miles actually, although of course the would help if like a few weeks ago AF BHX-CDG return is cheaper than WW EMA-CDG and AF give a sandwich, drinks, a lounge (due status) and miles - without some extra incentive and with higher fares its often extremely difficult to make a case to fly WW if booking at short notice.

Also what EMA MUST have back is the Diamond Club lounge - the voucher for the cafe that's given out to BRU pax at present is mean and no real compensation for the lack of a quiet place to sit before the flight. Oh, and they need to bring back the dedicated Diamond Club parking spaces in the short term car park, which have now been converted into staff spaces - EMA customer service [NOT!] strikes again!

Andy

[acbus1]

Let me see if I've got this right.

Back in 2000, Mainline told us that the Fokker operation at EMA was too big due to falling passenger figures.

The Go/Easyjet moved in around 2002 and all of a sudden, shock horror, Mainline needed to set up an operation bigger than the Fokker one in order to compete with Easyjet. People were given redundancy versus relocation to LHR (cabin crew) or move to baby versus relocation to LHR (pilots). Redundancy cost and relocation cost involved. Redundancy even though baby was still part of Mainline (not a separate operation)

Pilots at LHR on the 737 were persuaded* to relocate to EMA. (*Don't mention potentially illegal redundancy threats anyone!) Relocation costs incurred.

Cabin crew and pilots were retrained for the 737 (EMA) and the Fokker (LHR), incurring costs.

Note especially the enourmous human upheaval involved amidst all this expense.


And now they're proposing to largely put it all back the way it was before with possibly 3 Fokkers, plus crews, at EMA and Mainline operation partly replacing baby! The way it was when it supposedly could'nt compete with Easyjet!

No wonder people are resigning in bucketloads! Jump before it sinks!

Give me a clue, someone!

[bmibaby.com]

Whilst its now more than likely that AMS will be joining the CDG & BRU flights to be operated by bmi regional, the flights will not be operated by the Fokker 100 aircraft, as these are now being replaced with the order for Airbus 319s, unless I am mistaken?

What I think is the case for CDG/NCE/BRU is that these flights will currently be operated by bmi regional using their fleet of ERJ-145 aircraft. bmi have so far not yet made a replacement in the 70-seat market to replace the now departed Fokker 70s, although as I mentioned previously there have been rumours for some time the airline is or has been looking at the ERJ-170 family of aircraft, particularly the 84-seat ERJ-175.

Most of the business pax have had a problem with the new baby services replacing regional, with many taking their business, particularly the higher-yield business to BHX-based carriers. I wouldn't be surprised to see big baby expansion from BHX, but EMA flights (and associated facilities) being phased back to mainline or regional over the next year or so.

[BDWW]

bmibaby.com, i think that as bmi actually own the Fokkers WE and WF, they can't get rid of them so easily as JA, JB, JC & JD (which were leased). So they are staying within the fleet for at least in the short term future.

[alterego]

Funny BMI looking for 84 seat A/C when only 3 years ago it had 5x 86 seat A/C. All A/C returned to lessors and crews made redundant in 2002. They were 146s on Lh work.

I believe it's called the circle of life.

[Get me some traffic]

Someone please tell me why Baby are dropping the Prague from Teesside?

[acbus1]

"I believe it's called the circle of life."

I believe it's called appalling management and not giving a to$$ about human beings. :rolleyes: :mad:

[bmibaby.com]

I can honestly say up front that my knowledge of the bmi history is very limited, but I can remember that when bmi regional signed the deal for the ERJ-145s, they also signed a letter of intent for the EMB-175, which was meant to be a replacement for the Fokker 70 aircraft. Rather than cancelling these orders, which incurs a hefty fee, like Swiss have been doing, the orders have been deferred to later dates, and I think some may eventually be converted to ERJ-145 orders. I can't tell you anymore about the 80-seat history of bmi, particularly the flights operated for LH, which I'm sure were remanants of regional's past as Business Air?

[alterego]

Acbus 1

Actually in this case the management wanted to use the A/C on other routes for Reginal/BMI.

Alledgedly the Mainline cc invoked the scope clause (I only have this on rumour) which prohibited 5 abreast or more A/C being flown by Regional.

[caa19]

baby goes mad!

has anyone noticed you can do funny things with bmibaby.com

go to the timetable section and with a certain about of playing you can fly EMA-BHX EMA-MAN

i know they are positioning flights at the end of each season - kinda a pitty you cant book em!

[acbus1]

There you have it! The last three posts serve to demonstrate the appalling management I referred to, despite some posters attempts to "explain" otherwise. :rolleyes:

[ATNotts]

Don't know if I'm just unlucky but the WW booking engine seems to fall over mid-way through the process far too often. Thought it was my browser, but AB, EZY and BE work fine.

As a result BE gained a BHD booking at the expense of WW to BFS.

Anywone else uncountered similar problems?

[330-Purser]

Don't know if I'm just unlucky but the WW booking engine seems to fall over mid-way through the process far too often

I agree with you totally!!!

I tried several times recently to change a booking, everytime I tried I got told the server was too busy and to try again later. When I eventually called the reservations centre as I was about to loose my flights altogether, they told me it was £5 more to change over the phone! The flaming cheek when the website is rubbish!!!

Someone needs to sort it out, its making them look like money grabbing scrooge's when changes are more to do over the phone. I can understand bookings being more, but not changes.

As for the website, its not very impressive is it. Looks cheaply made and hardly ever works...

330-Purser :*

[G-BBAE]

BMI Baby maybe dropping PRAGUE BECAUSE ITS HAVING LOW PASSENGER NUMBERS AND NOT MAKING A PROFIT!

[ATNotts]

330-Purser

I got exactly the same c**p from reservations a wee while ago when I couldn't make a reservation on the website because of WW's IT issues.

They tried to make me pay £ 5.00 for an off-web booking, and the rumpus I had to create over the principal of not paying £ 5.00 was unbelievable.

I'm afraid I'm not too pleasant when a service industry fails to provide "service" then has the audacity to charge me for their incompetence!

Tiny needs to sort this out as soon as he's had his nappy changed!

[LBA]

G-BBAE/TIY - Dont know how you can shout at people after some of the questions you have asked in the past!

Apparanatly Prague was doing well, not sure why they dropped it.

[StarAllianceGold]

The transfer of the Paris and Nice flights is confirmed in a news article on flybmi.com...


"...

Flights will be an all-jet, full-service operation, offering both business and economy class seating. The new bmi regional schedule will replace the current Nottingham East Midlands to Paris CDG and Nice flights which are operated by bmi low-cost subsidiary bmibaby.

..."



https://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/aboutbmi/presscentre/pressreleases.aspx?year=2005&rid=572

[BDWW]

So now CDG & NCE have been confirmed that they are going to regional, who is going to do the ground handling? Is regional going to continue with the madness and attrociousness of servisair or are the "baby" ground staff (who many are ex-bmi) going to be given the contract??
As with only 4 baby a/c based there from March, you can't help thinking the management will sell them down the river again and get rid of them completely!

[acbus1]

What a/c type is being used on the Nice?

Which crews will fly it?

:confused:

[330-Purser]

What a/c type is being used on the Nice?

It'll be on the BarbieJet 145 of course! Its quite within range apparently. At least the girls will have more time on a NCE to warm the hot dinner for the 1 business class pax they'll probably get... :p

[lexxity]

ticket desk staff at EMA for regional will be regional staff. Don't know about check in though.

At least the girls will have more time on a NCE to warm the hot dinner for the 1 business class pax they'll probably get...

Nah, they'll just serve the cous-cous and bagel and cream cheese they do on the TLS! Therefore having even more time to do not a lot!

[330-Purser]

Nah, they'll just serve the cous-cous and bagel and cream cheese they do on the TLS! Therefore having even more time to do not a lot!

LOL! Silly me! I should have remembered they're probably not trained on usage of ovens on the BarbieJet! :p :p :p :p

[acbus1]

What a/c type is being used on the Nice?

It'll be on the BarbieJet 145 of course!

Anyone actually passengered on a BarbieJet?

How long was it before your back and buttocks were screaming for relief? 15 minutes, tops? :ugh:

Easyjet, come and get it. Your 737's would wipe the floor with the Barbie!

[330-Purser]

Anyone actually passengered on a BarbieJet?

They're actually very comfortable. The single seat is nice if your feeling unsocialble ;)

Just a wee bit clostrophobic, thats the only problem. Got to hand it to girls who work on them, I seriously couldn't do less than twin aisle now! LOL!!!

[acbus1]

They're actually very comfortable
In that case they must have increased seat pitch (very cramped legroom even for a medium chap like myself), enabled/fitted seat reclining (rigid vertical was all I ever experienced..........in the seat back I mean) and added padding to the "bottom"cushion (very thin and hard was my pleasure......in the seat I still mean)!

Worth a try at the sales pitch, though 330-Purser. Experienced travellers know better.

:ugh:

[BDWW]

Well good news for the "baby" ground staff at EMA as they have been given the contract to handle the bmi regional flights to BRU, CDG and NCE routes plus charters. Hopefully this will mean that their jobs are safe and they won't try to get rid of staff by "natural wastage"

[alterego]

Interesting comments in Flight today about Baby opening up in Europe.

Perhaps JR hasn't left, afterall.