bmi British Midland taken over by Lufthansa

OPENROAD

Has been on the cards for some time now, hope that the bmi name will still operate, will be interesting to see what is done with routes, could not see the Dublin route going.

I suppose this will mean the end of Diamond Club and introduction of Miles & More

FlutterinBantam

Mick Bishop will be in clover:eek:

OPENROAD

Indeed he will fair play to him, finally decided to call it a day even though this has been on the cards for some years now.

FlutterinBantam

Probably will retire to a cottage in the Cotswolds:D

Silenceisbliss

haaaa, go
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Lufthansa
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Fratton Fred

I would be surprised if there is too much in the way of changes tbh. There aren't too many routes that overlap and both are part of the star alliance so naturally complement each other.

Also the Heathrow slots are worth a fortune so I can't imagine Lufthansa wanting to give them up.

Tenger

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I would be surprised if there is too much in the way of changes tbh. .................Also the Heathrow slots are worth a fortune so I can't imagine Lufthansa wanting to give them up.

There are rumours of BMI stopping longhaul ops out of MAN. But as you said being *partners makes the deal quite logical and smooth.

LH are snapping up airlines at the moment. Swiss, Brussels Airlines, Austrian, BMI,they have a share in JetBlue and I think they have a large share of GermanWings.


So we now have BA/IB, KLM-AFand LH all consolidating. Mick O'Leary claims FR will be the 4th airline group to survive in Europe over the next few years........is Mick Nostrodamus reborn!

OPENROAD

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I would be surprised if there is too much in the way of changes tbh. There aren't too many routes that overlap and both are part of the star alliance so naturally complement each other.

Also the Heathrow slots are worth a fortune so I can't imagine Lufthansa wanting to give them up.

My main worry is what is going to happen to Diamond Club

Fratton Fred

OPENROAD wrote: »

My main worry is what is going to happen to Diamond Club

mine too. I'd really miss my free cup of tea and breakfast roll:D

OPENROAD

Fratton Fred wrote: »

mine too. I'd really miss my free cup of tea and breakfast roll:D

I'm an afternoon flyer so its red wine and Sandwich for me

I'm worried about not having lounge access anyomore which has been a blessing, I suppose things will pretty much stay the same for the next year, it is possible that they might keep Diamond Club and pretty much operate as bmi, time will tell.

Mythago

Fratton Fred wrote: »

mine too. I'd really miss my free cup of tea and breakfast roll:D

All Lufty flights are free snacks. So, on bmi, instead of Diamond club golds getting a free snack everyone will get a nice cheese sandwich:D

Dublin routes are bmi's money spinner so highly unlikely to see them ever being cut back.

However, bmi regional's future is somewhat different. Flybe are VERY keen to get their hands on bmi regional's routes so I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future another anouncement is made.

Fratton Fred

Mythago wrote: »

All Lufty flights are free snacks. So, on bmi, instead of Diamond club golds getting a free snack everyone will get a nice cheese sandwich:D

That's no good, I like to be special

i would be very surprised to see BMI/Lufthansa give up their Heathrow slots, I can imagine some of them are very lucrative as well, especially their Heathrow-Aberdeen flights.

Tenger

Fratton Fred wrote: »

i would be very surprised to see BMI/Lufthansa give up their Heathrow slots, I can imagine some of them are very lucrative as well, especially their Heathrow-Aberdeen flights.

BMI operate a few flights out of LHR which could be given to LH. The operate Embraers out of LHR which seems a waste of a valuable slot for a regional jet. Think their LHR-MAN flight is this. LH could replace this with a more lucrative longhaul destination.

Davidth88

I flew on one of their Embraers to Jersey from LHR back in the summer

and it was half empty !

Fratton Fred

Bramble wrote: »

BMI operate a few flights out of LHR which could be given to LH. The operate Embraers out of LHR which seems a waste of a valuable slot for a regional jet. Think their LHR-MAN flight is this. LH could replace this with a more lucrative longhaul destination.

how do the slots work? can you change a domestic one for a long haul one? If they did that, terminal one would get even quieter.

Gekko

Davidth88 wrote: »

I flew on one of their Embraers to Jersey from LHR back in the summer

and it was half empty !

Apparently they get a massive subsidy from the Jersey government for the Heathrow flight - suggested to be as much as £10m!!

OPENROAD

Mythago wrote: »

All Lufty flights are free snacks. So, on bmi, instead of Diamond club golds getting a free snack everyone will get a nice cheese sandwich:D

Dublin routes are bmi's money spinner so highly unlikely to see them ever being cut back.

However, bmi regional's future is somewhat different. Flybe are VERY keen to get their hands on bmi regional's routes so I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future another anouncement is made.

I think peoples main worry is what they will do with Diamond club, as it is,it is one of the best ff programmes out there, Silver only requires 16k miles which allows the all important Lounge access.

I agree that the DUB-LHR route is unlikely to be touched.

I think that they may continue to operate as bmi. Nothing is likely to happen until Jan 09 when LH have to complete the deal.

OPENROAD

Interesting article


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article5061705.ece

Duffman

Just when I discovered DC too

Fratton Fred

Bramble wrote: »

There are rumours of BMI stopping longhaul ops out of MAN. But as you said being *partners makes the deal quite logical and smooth.

Not rumours any morehttps://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/planningandinformation/flightinformation/newsaffectingtravel.aspx#180

MAN to Chicago ends in January and MAN to Las Vegas and the Caribbean end in April.

It looks like they are moving the A330s onto the Middle east flights.

Mythago

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Not rumours any morehttps://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/planningandinformation/flightinformation/newsaffectingtravel.aspx#180

MAN to Chicago ends in January and MAN to Las Vegas and the Caribbean end in April.

It looks like they are moving the A330s onto the Middle east flights.

110 redundancies announced at MAN yesterday apparently. But MAN long haul changes had been on the cards for ages

OPENROAD

Something I noticed if you try booking bmi Dub-Lhr flights for Jan 2009, is that they seem to have reduced flights on certain days, could well be an I.T. issue, at least I hope so.