BA parent to buy BD!

[Giblets]

Well, this has not pretty much been rubber stamped, however, still little or no news on BMI baby or BMI regional.

BMI are set to leave the star alliance on the 18/19th (when the deal officially completes), with the summer season set to continue as is, codes shares with Star will end, and their flights are already showing BA flight codes.
Any flights booked as code shares will be honoured (including those gained on points), and they are working on the value of frequent flier points for current exec club members.

BA will have to give up 14 slots (this includes the two already leased to Transaero) to new entrants on a few of the BMI routes which will become a monopoly ( Nice, Cairo, Riyadh, Moscow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen), but will keep if there are no new entrants.


I suspect a couple of the aircraft will be painted pretty soon (namely any sporting 'star Alliance' livery).

[cloud_9]

Looks like Virgin haven't quite given up the chase just yet...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...K-flights.html

[Giblets]

I, along with most other enthusiasts (looking on various forums), can't see Virgin starting the UK routes at all.

Odds on that following the example of their bid for BMI, they will put in a lowball bid for all the slots, and complain when they don't get them.

I can see however, them starting up flights to the likes of Cairo and Moscow..

[Doors4]

And still nothing about the buyers of Regional and Baby.

The IAG/BD deal is to be complete by the 20th so the next 10 days should see things happening fairly quickly. Will be interesting to see.

Also wonder at the wisdom of VS going for the BA slots. If they are serious, can they really make a go of any of the routes with such a limited number of slots? If they aren't serious, isn't it time for SRB to stop fretting about what other airlines, airports, and bodies are doing and concentrate on his own airline which isn't exactly the trailblazer it once was?

[Giblets]

There were some rumours about Virgin buying BMI regional, however, they only fly very small Embraers, which would would not pay for themselves on the LHR routes.
The only thing this would be worth doing for would be to 'keep the slots warm', as any airline would get grandfather rights (i.e keep them) after (I think) seven seasons.

[Comet]

I booked bmi from LBA-BRU to fly in September, I am now very concerned about whether or not my flight will operate or if I will end up having to fork out (again) to book onto the LBA-AMS flight. I wish bmi would provide more information rather than just concentrating on the Diamond Club (this is all on its Facebook page, their website is neither use nor ornament if you're trying to find out what the hell is happening with regards to flight bookings and whether or not you will actually have a flight to go on!)

[Giblets]

If you are flying the main BMi part, your flight will be going ahead, if regional, or baby, I'm afraid BMI simply don't know themselves.

[Doors4]

Agreed Giblets, until the take overs of the 3 companies are complete they probably have very little information to offer.

Also Comet, if the company that buys any given part of the company decides not to continue with a route or specific flight I would imagine those with reservations would be rebooked elsewhere or refunded.

Just seen on Jethro's that the two BD 330's are for disposal end of S12, no surprise there really.

[Giblets]

From today's Telegraph

IAG could see £80m knocked off bmi price after failure to sell bmibaby and bmi Regional

International Airlines Group is expected to see a "significant" sum knocked off its £172.5m purchase of bmi after Lufthansa's attempts to sell bmibaby and bmi Regional suffered a setback ahead of Friday's closing date.

International Airlines Group had agreed to buy bmi for £172.5m.

German company Intro Aviation and Dublin-based charter carrier ACL, two companies previously linked to a potential bid for bmibaby, are understood to no longer be interested in acquiring the low-cost airline.

IAG, the owner of British Airways, has already negotiated a sizeable discount with Lufthansa in the event that neither division is sold before the deal completes on Friday.

Some estimates in the City place the size of the reduction at around £80m.
The discount would reflect the financial liabilities and losses that would be taken on by IAG.

A spokesman for bmi insisted the company remained in negotiations with various parties over the two operations.

He said: "Regarding bmibaby and bmi Regional, discussions with potential buyers continue."

However, analysts are increasingly sceptical that a buyer can be found given the tough conditions in the aviation market.

Douglas McNeill, a transport analyst at Charles Stanley Securities, said: "Neither unit is a prime asset and it's not easy to see who would be willing to stump up hard cash for them."

[TonyT]

You have to remember Baby has no assets so to speak of bar the name, routes and AOC, everything is leased as far as I am aware off... I believe if the Europeans hadn't given the go ahead to the acquisition by BA the receivers would have been called in. All this uncertainty has got to be killing their load factors. They were not a bad airline and at least Baby took you somewhere close to the listed destination, something a lot of the other low cost airlines fail to do.