IAG to purchase BMI

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

David086

So is the Bmi brand going to be gone?

Delancey

I think this takeover will struggle to get approval in its current form from regulators / European Commission - serious implications for competition and increases the BA stranglehold at LHR.

Tenger

David086 wrote: »

So is the Bmi brand going to be gone?

Not necessarily. It is IAG buying Bmi, not BA. Bmi may still operate as a separate brand under the umbrella of IAG. WW is quoted as saying they have no plans to get rid of it 'in the short term'.

Delancey wrote: »

I think this takeover will struggle to get approval in its current form from regulators / European Commission - serious implications for competition and increases the BA stranglehold at LHR.

Again, not necessarily. Assuming that all current Bmi slots are taken by BA the takeover could offer BA another 7% of the LHR slots. This is 56 slot pairs per week. However getting these increase would still leave BA at less market share of their 'home' hub than some other airlines (Delta at ATL, Lufty at FRA, Air France at CDG, KLM at AMS) I think BA currently have 45% of LHR slots.
(The Independant.co.uk says the buyout will give BA 53%)

In addition no other airline could have realistically absorbed the Bmi slots. Bmi were the 2nd biggest slot holders at LHR, just ahead of Virgin and Aer Lingus.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ba-tightens-its-heathrow-grip-with-172m-bmi-buy-6280815.html

A320

BMI brand is being kept and I believe they will operate as a low cost airline to a lot of middle east routes like BMI already use

afatbollix

Anyone know when we will see ba branded flights in Dublin again.. If you want to book flights you have to use the ba website.

Also I've noticed the cheap fares have gone up a 5er each way..

MuffinsDa

A320 wrote: »

BMI brand is being kept and I believe they will operate as a low cost airline to a lot of middle east routes like BMI already use

Probably for political reasons (in Middle East), were the name "British" Airways could automatically cause hassle and suspicion!

LXFlyer

BMI (Heathrow) is being fully integrated into BA over the course of the summer. From next week the Dublin flights will change to BA flight numbers. In time aircraft will be repainted and refurbished into BA livery and interior. Announcements continue to filter out.

BA have a totally different pricing structure to bmi.

BMI regional will continue to operate, having been bought by an Aberdeen based consortium and they will retain the bmi brand and flybmi.com website.

Zonda999

Does anyone know what effect this will have on the codeshare between EI and BA? Or the code shares that BMI had/have with other Star Alliance carriers through LHR?

LXFlyer

None at all re BA/EI. BA will still code share with EI but only as part of an onward journey.

Given bmi is no longer part of Star Alliance the other code shares will I imagine evaporate.

BuffyBot

MuffinsDa wrote: »

Probably for political reasons (in Middle East), were the name "British" Airways could automatically cause hassle and suspicion!

Yes, the British Midland International brand would be much less problematic

Does anyone know what effect this will have on the codeshare between EI and BA? Or the code shares that BMI had/have with other Star Alliance carriers through LHR?

EI/BA codeshare remains intact at the moment, bmi codeshares remain intact with their partners, most likely until the end of the summer schedule.

Zonda999

BuffyBot wrote: »

EI/BA codeshare remains intact at the moment, bmi codeshares remain intact with their partners, most likely until the end of the summer schedule.

Cool, so in about a months time, you could travel on a British Airways aircraft from DUB to LHR and then codeshare with Virgin Atlantic onto the states. Few would have thought you could codeshare between those two particular carriers