BMI-EDI to USA Service
 

I am admitedly a bit biased, but I think that a direct service from Edinburgh to the USA makes sense. Most tourist from the US come to Scotland to see Edinburgh, St. Andrews and other East Coast destinations. Very few go to their travel agents and say, "I want to go to Glasgow !". I think BMI would do OK with this service and they may even end up attracting pax from the North East of England, Newcastle, etc.

What are everyone's thoughts ?

You are absolutely right

Me thinks bmi would have thought about transatlantic from either Edinburgh or Glasgow at the same time as plans were put in place for Manchester.

A service out of GLA to BOS to replace the old service years ago by Northwest and GLA to IAD replacing United may well work.

I think you would generate traffic if the fares were right to fly UK airlines GLA/EDI to USA/Canada rather than Continental/American/Air Canada/Canada 3000/Air Transat

Saw their A330 taking off 09R at Heathrow this week and it looks very very nice !!!!!!!!

:)

Very, very tacky

Yes, it's true.... BMI's A330 is really great! BMI's second A330 will be in service soon and I understood that the a/c is scheduled for MAN-IAD and maybe also for MAN-DFW...???????

DFW would suit me just nicely! :) Anyone with more info on that please?

There are rumours of some Scottish routes as a trade of allowing LHR operations.
I am interested as to why Prince Kebab thinks the aircraft is 'very very tacky'
We all have an opinion, I am merely interested to know what is so offensive.

Now this one has an air of intrigue...

Could it be that Sir Michael was trying to put a spoiler on CO's plans to start from EDI to EWR.

I reckon it is very unlikely that bmi will operate their 330s out of EDI to the USA... but on the other hand UAL might just consider operting on a code share basis from IAD to EDI.

At the moment bmi's request to codeshare on the UAL ex LHR flights got a knockback so Sir Michael says how come Branson and Bethune can do it but not bmi & UAL - he cries foul. Likely scenario. bmi & UAL codeshare goes ahead after election.

bmi has done a real nice job on the ife system an upgraded version of the one currently with Virgin plus the addition of 2 cameras, one forward looking and one pointing to the ground.

Only problem is with the cheap seats... fat guys like me can't get the control unit for the IFE out of the side armrest, anything in your pocket can trigger the buttons on the control unit, and when the seat in front reclines, you can't see the screen.

[This message has been edited by John MacCalman (edited 10 May 2001).]

And of course none of them come to see the 3rd most visited city in Britain....Glasgow (in tourist terms)the Western Highlands, Loch Lomond, the golf courses of Ayrshire (Royal Troon, Turnberry etc)or any other of the multitude of attractions of the west coast. Sounds a bit more than biased......

Saw the bmi A330-200 at MAN yesterday.
Colourscheme a bit too "fussy".It could do without the red wingtips and engine cowlings. However- wish them all the best on the Atlantic.

>>And of course none of them come to see the 3rd most visited city in Britain....
Glasgow <<

Glasgow's visitor figures are boosted by
transatlantic pax arriving on the monopoly
services there...how many 'visitors' have
no intention of visiting Glasgow.? :-(

Don't lose sight of the main point here. It is important that more routes are established from Scotland be it GLA or EDI. (I think in this case the fact that 44% of pax at EDI are business vs 37% at GLA favours EDI.)
There has been much talk recently of the future of UK aviation. We are slipping behind Europe and with the south east overcrowded to limits more flying from the regions makes sense.
Just one question. With the millions being invested in EDI (new international terminal etc) how long will it be before someone sees sense and extends the taxiway to the full lengths of 06/24? I can't think of anywhere else I fly to in Europe where this is the case.

There will be little chance of runway improvement at EDI, it is basically a bean counter driven shopping ardcade :mad:
'But we have established a study group to investigate, should have a report when the costs have doubled so we can say no again'
:rolleyes: