bmibaby "reports new base"

[Simon Lumley]

Surprise, surprise!!!!! The Derby Evening Telegraph interviewed Tony Davies last week and reported on the success of the airline. The report said that its new base is "reported to be MANCHESTER". Several aviation magazine said the same thing.

It will be announed in within the next two weeks with 2 aircraft based by December 2002.

Apparently Easyjet tried to base there a few years ago but there were some sort of difficulties with MAN and so they chose LPL instead.. Does anyone know anything about this? Now, obviously baby is trying there.

[OrsonCart]

The chief exec of Manch airports is the ex MD of East Midlands who has been shaving costs at Manch since he arrived to head the airport group. East Mids is part of that group so a natural progression.

Not bad for a guy who used to work on the info desk a few years back, or so i am told?

Manch needs competition in the face of Liverpools massive low cost boom. Expect to see far more routes from John Lennon by both easy and Ryanair as this forms part of a long term relationship between Peel and these airlines. Reduced airport charges will come with increases in volume.

[captain ochre]

A so called low cost carrier going into EGCC - a high cost base ? - and lets throw in some very long holding and taxiing times to boot - you think these 'low cost' newcomers would learn how the model works by now -

Step 1 - find a low cost base, with lowest airport charges
Step 2 - ensure it can deliver fast turnarounds

[Buster the Bear]

easy make it work well at Gatwick!

[682ft AMSL]

Interesting move given that all the existing & proposed 'baby' routes ex EMA are all currently served ex MAN either through the huge charter set-up or by the likes of BA / LH / SAS etc.

On the part of 'baby', they will therefore face competition if a similar route network is adopted and in the case of the 'bucket & spade' routes (e.g. PMI, ALC etc) they will be entering a market that is near saturation point. For them, quicker, cheaper and easier wins could be had elsewhere I suspect.

As far as MAPLC is concerned, they will need to manage the integration carefully if they are to avoid p*****g off the existing operators. CSA for example are about to add more frequency to Prague ex MAN. How will they take the news that a low-cost airline is being given discounted fees to operate the same route? In the case of CPH, MUC and other Star Alliance routes, will 'baby' operate 'instead of' or 'as well as'. If they operate instead of, how does this affect connecting opportunities in and out of MAN, particularly in relation to efforts to build a long-hual hub there.

All will be revealed in due course I'm sure

682

[P.Pilcher]

It's much simpler than that: The plan is to subsidise BMI Baby's airport charges with the income obtained from the fines levied in Manch's staff carparks!

[captain ochre]

Fair point Buster, although you always know which runway to use at Gatwick and don't have delays waiting to cross another one.

Apparently the Competition Commission are reviewing Manchester's charges just now so maybe Manchester won't be permitted to give BMIbaby lower charges than CSA.