bmi diamond club - Assorted rumours: extra A330 to LHR, all LBA ops ERJ

Some recent rumours bubbling up on the pprune (source: http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airports-routes/311882-bmi-15.html) ...

bmi Heathrow Ops having a bit of a re-shuffle in the next few months. More Embraers, more A330 flights and A320/1s to be released onto charter flights.

Also heard that all LBA-LHR flights are to be operated by ERJs this winter.

Mainline fleet semi-moving to MAN to cover EMB's moving south. Reduction in domestic - maybe introduction of something like Moscow or Tel Aviv with 320's. One 330 (from ORD? rotation - leaving Caribbean) to move to LHR for Middle East routes.

Discuss / disagree / contradict / comment at your pleasure.

All I know is that is they remove the A330 that covers the ORD route, then they will be very short-sighted in my opinion.

With the AA/BA tie up happening, that will be the end of the MAN-ORD AA route as BA don't like OW operating out of MAN at the expense of feeder traffic to LHR. If anything, it is an opportunity for bmi to really stitch that route up as their own.

I was chatting with the CSD on the BD723 to BGI last Monday. (Great food and service in J by the way but the seats really are quite flimsy and not a patch on the likes of the SAA J seat.)

He told me they'd been informed a couple of weeks ago that LBA is to lose the 319s in favour of Embraers once the winter timetable comes into effect. Clearly a fuel saving measure as the 319s, even on the busier BD411 and BD418 flights are rarely much more than half full. What it will mean though is serious capacity issues as those "busy" flights would more than fill an ER145. It also makes the trip much more painful for those with hand baggage seeking a quick exit from the flight.

Not good news for those of us travelling regularly on the LBA-LHR-LBA circuit.:td::(

Hmm. Very short sighted in terms of long haul. :td:

The ORD link (Ok, I'm biased as I do use this service) is one what I would consider BD's "Flagship" service where it can happily go toe-to-toe with AA and offer a better product. The loads/income for that service can't have dropped like a stone can they?

If this happens, they're basicly turning MAN to a Holiday hub (with the LAS/BGI/AUT routes) for long haul services. That doesn't strike me as 1) sustainable in the long term and 2) removes any focus of business or focused business targets.

It's also once again showing BD's weakness in only have 3 A330 aircraft (not that many of us have harped on about this)

Although quite frankly as the fleet will be eventually going over to the Blue and Yellow side, I suppose this is all window dressing until then...

It also makes the trip much more painful for those with hand baggage seeking a quick exit from the flight.
The gate-checking service would make it no different - just pick up your bags when you walk down the steps.

More Embraers and another A330 at LHR makes sense and we already know some of the older MIDx A320/A321s are being used with Baby or for charters so a couple more would be nothing new.

The gate-checking service would make it no different - just pick up your bags when you walk down the steps.

Sure, but I was thinking more about the wait onboard while the bags are brought from the hold to the bottom of the steps after reaching the gate. I guess in reality it won't make that much difference.

The bigger issue is capacity and comfort on the Embraer and of course the absence of the great LBA based 319 crew.

There continues to be the usual semi-informed or completely-uninformed LHR v. MAN hubbub on pprune, but one subsequent comment struck for its feasibility:

Major schedule changes coming up for MME, LBA and JER to LHR and all of them will be operated by Embraers this winter. Jersey going onto a 135 with no morning JER-LHR flight is a particular sign that this route must be struggling.

Rumours for Summer 2009 that the MAN-LAS/Caribbean routes will be pulled and one A330 moved to Heathrow to cover some of the longer flying from there.

That makes sense to me... LBA based ERJs serving LHR and JER on W patterns, but obviously at some cost. Was there some start up money involved on the LHR-JER route? If that's expiring soon then maybe BD will cull lighter rotations?

The gate-checking service would make it no different - just pick up your bags when you walk down the steps.

Providing that is that you are not concerned about the contents of your bag still being inside the bag when you get it back. Never, ever use the gate checking service if you value your posessions, especially at LHR!

Providing that is that you are not concerned about the contents of your bag still being inside the bag when you get it back. Never, ever use the gate checking service if you value your posessions, especially at LHR!

Are you serious? I've used it plenty at LBA, BRU, LHR and GLA?

Providing that is that you are not concerned about the contents of your bag still being inside the bag when you get it back. Never, ever use the gate checking service if you value your posessions, especially at LHR!

So are you accusing the staff at LHR of:

a) Theft? or
b) Negligence?

Providing that is that you are not concerned about the contents of your bag still being inside the bag when you get it back. Never, ever use the gate checking service if you value your posessions, especially at LHR!

I think that the many, many people who either operate, or use bmi regional's superb gate checking service for the ERJs will not take at all kindly to this remark. :td:

Providing that is that you are not concerned about the contents of your bag still being inside the bag when you get it back. Never, ever use the gate checking service if you value your posessions, especially at LHR!

This comment makes no sense. When are the LHR baggage handlers going to remove, selectively, your belongings in the few minutes before loading. I've used the Embraer service many times with no loss of laptops etc. I don't believe there are ANY issues with gate/tarmac checking on bmi flights.

bmifly

Folks, let get back on topic and ignore any comments that are irksome, eh?
--

GoldCircle
bmi forum moderator

This comment makes no sense. When are the LHR baggage handlers going to remove, selectively, your belongings in the few minutes before loading. I've used the Embraer service many times with no loss of laptops etc. I don't believe there are ANY issues with gate/tarmac checking on bmi flights.

bmifly.

I'm sorry its off topic and I promse I won't add any comments to this thread but please don't refute comments just because what you "believe" differs from the facts. Belongings have been removed from my bag when using the gate-side check facility at T1 and with bmi. There was a convenient delay unloading baggage, a police report was filed and Heathrow police acknowledged it was not unusual. There are some very knowlegeable people posting on here and all the help is appreciated but it is unhelpful to make comments about things you clearly know nothing about. If you want to discuss further I'm happy to discuss in another thread on topic! I will add that I don't think bmi staff had anything to do with it but it could only have been airport staff, airline staff or some sort of security breach.

The ORD link (Ok, I'm biased as I do use this service) is one what I would consider BD's "Flagship" service where it can happily go toe-to-toe with AA and offer a better product. The loads/income for that service can't have dropped like a stone can they?



I flew MAN-ORD a couple of weeks ago and it was about half to two-thirds full in J. Although with a few of the news seats out of action they wouldn't have been able to cope with a full cabin anyway.

According to ITA all LHR-MME rotations (3 daily weekdays) will be bmi regional ERJs from the start of the winter timetable.

As is ABZ on most days, and HAJ - but oddly not JER or LBA as far as I can tell.

There will be a few spare A320s around this winter - I presume these will go to Baby to reduce fuel costs.

I flew MAN-ORD a couple of weeks ago and it was about half to two-thirds full in J. Although with a few of the news seats out of action they wouldn't have been able to cope with a full cabin anyway.

any sign on the promised IFE screens fitted into row 1 yet?

There will be some formal update on the winter schedule by Wednesday at the latest.

The gate-checking service would make it no different - just pick up your bags when you walk down the steps.

More Embraers and another A330 at LHR makes sense and we already know some of the older MIDx A320/A321s are being used with Baby or for charters so a couple more would be nothing new.

Although, if you've eveer arrived into MAN T3 on the T2 side (if that makes sense), then bythe time you get your white tagged valet service, the rest of the pax and bags are in the baggage hall :mad:

Whilst trawling for award flights this week I noticed that some LHR-GLR-LHR flights were on ER4's. I've never seen this before. Yes, I was checking sunday's but I travel down to London on a Sunday very regularily but never on an ER4. Is this new?

No, Embraers have been used on weekend domestics for a while - particularly the dead periods such as Saturday afternoons, last flight Sunday.

any sign on the promised IFE screens fitted into row 1 yet?

Nope. Still scribbling 'advised no IFE' on your BP and giving you £ 25 to spend on board.

I have to say I will continue to book bulkheads window seats. You have a good chance of no seatmate and as it's not AVOD then you're not missing much with no IFE anyway. Allied to it being a relatively short flight and it'll do for me. Just booked 1A again for a flight in a couple of months.

If they do eventually put the screens on the bulkhead for the outer seats I hope they issue you with binoculars as well, as that's a fair distance!.

On the subject of the ERJ's. If the loads I keep seeing on the MAN flights stay as they are then that's all they will need on that route.

As is ABZ on most days, and HAJ - but oddly not JER or LBA as far as I can tell.

There will be a few spare A320s around this winter - I presume these will go to Baby to reduce fuel costs.

Sounds like LBA may go regional after all, according to the link here (http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/search/label/bmi) - I thought HAJ already was?

Incidentally, I was in BOD last week coming back on easyJet (oh the shame :o ... admittedly I went out on BA and was the only passenger in Club - great service! :D ), and the baby to MAN was being operated by a mainline A321! There was a delay too, so maybe the regular 737 had gone tech...


bmi starting 26OCT08 is transferring most of its mainline service on 3 routes to bmi Regional out of London Heathrow

For Leeds/Bradford up to 4 Daily service is operated by ERJ145, while Day 5 service on BD420 and BD411 on Day x67 is operated by A319

Service to Durham/Tees Valley will all be operated by ERJ145

Service to Aberdeen will all be operated by ERJ145

I attended CeBit at Hannover last year (World's largest tech fair) and if they supply an Embraer for the Sunday night flight home there will be problems.

Last year they had to put an A321 on the route for that flight it was so busy!

I have a couple of small updates from this morning's briefing. No explanation on aircraft but some route news. Will try and add some more detail later on if I get a moment...

This winter:

* LHR-DME to finally go double-daily (UN also doubling in future, eventual total 4xdaily)
* LHR-ESB (Ankara) direct suspended
* LHR-SVX (Ekaterinburg) direct suspended, codeshare via DME
* More Embraers on domestics, as we can already see
* No significant change to long-haul ops

Future:

* More frequencies on UK-Saudia Arabia but probably not until next winter (!)
* A new unspecified mid-haul/long-haul destination
* No plans whatsoever for USA for the time being

* More Embraers on domestics, as we can already see

Thanks for the update.

Any thoughts as to where all these extra Embraers are coming from ? The existing fleet is fully utilised as it is.

They were totally unclear on this. took a while for Turner to admit that Embraers were to be used, praising them as "great aircraft" while Bye insisted the use of Embraers on domestics was "nothing new at all" which is technically true but doesn't reflect the significant shift in aircraft utilisation. Both insisted the winter domestic schedule had not been finalised, so we may have to wait for news on this.

My complete guess is a reduction in ABZ-MAN frequencies or dropping of routes (how are those EMA routes doing?) but I'm none the wiser after this morning :(

Thanks AJ for the update - much appreciated.

From a very selfish, Manchester centric point of view it is good news to hear of no changes yet to the USA and Caribbean routes.

Hopefully the new mid / long haul route will be an interesting one.

Yeah, I think the swap from MAN-Caribbean to LHR-Saudi might happen eventually but it is certainly not imminent. I guess the relatively good winter yields mean it makes sense to stick with the Caribbean for the time being.

Oh, and apparently BEY is doing very well. The briefing was held at the Sierra Leone High Commission of all places so lots and lots of waffle about the importance of Freetown...but apart from a slightly earlier departure, no changes to the service there.

Well, that's intresting news. At least the Manchester Long Haul hub is intact for now (of course ... oh you know what I'm going to say about getting new long haul birds). It's good to see the yields and usage of the routes is still paying them relativly well for them to keep the routes from MAN.

For DME passengers, this is definatly good news. Now if they actually could go toe-to-toe with BA on this route (sans the fallapart BA 767's), we could see real competition.

If the expansion isn't to the North Americas, then logicly, the expansion is to the East. The question is which eastern desternation are they pondering?

With fuel prices in flux, I'm sure 1 or 2 carriers must be looking to temporaily getting shot of ERJ-145's or BMI could inovate and introduce E170/E175/E190/E195's....

If the expansion isn't to the North Americas, then logicly, the expansion is to the East. The question is which eastern desternation are they pondering?I suppose it could also be South, to Africa.

The hint was "eastwards" although as NickB says they could be using the term to mean anything that's not transatlantic! When asked what he meant by expansion of services to Saudi Arabia, Turner said it was "frequencies to existing destinations in the first instance" but he said he would not rule out an additional destination in future. He did rule out any bmi service to areas dominated by home carriers, citing Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai.

Bear in mind he has previously talked about possible service to Kiev, Lahore (and St Petersburg, or did I imagine that one?) and nothing has come of it so I wouldn't hold your breath...

Edit to add Moscow schedule (BD flights only):

BD895 depart Heathrow 2155, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 0445
BD896 depart Moscow Domodedovo 0635, arrive Heathrow 0750
BD891 depart Heathrow 0930, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 1620
BD894 depart Moscow Domodedovo 1810, arrive Heathrow 1940

Just had a follow-up call from bmi to say the domestic winter schedule won't be finalised for another 7-10 days, so we'll have to wait for answers re: Embraers etc.

These changes kick in at the end of the month right? Does that include the additional DME frequency, as that is rather short notice?

Yes, start of winter timetable on 26 Oct. It's on sale already.

Some extra detail on the UN/Transaero codeshare - look like this has deepened and takes in a number of routes from both DME and LHR, not just Ekaterinburg. Presumably this will be reflected in Diamond Club earnings at some point?

The "busy" BD411 on the LBA-LHR route will be operated by A319, but almost all other flights on that route LHR-LBA are operated by ER4. How therefore does the A319 get to LBA in order to operate the early morning BD411?:confused: I can't see where it comes from....

As a secondary point, BD411 has been re-timed from the existing 06:45 or 07:00 departure to an 08:10 departure (arriving LHR at 09:25), making it much less feasible for business travellers wanting to spend the day working in London.:td::mad:

BD895 depart Heathrow 2155, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 0445
BD896 depart Moscow Domodedovo 0635, arrive Heathrow 0750
BD891 depart Heathrow 0930, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 1620
BD894 depart Moscow Domodedovo 1810, arrive Heathrow 1940

Can understand this schedule from the point of view of having one aircraft dedicated to the route to-ing and fro-ing but it doesn't look great from a practical point of view.

Probably useful for a Russian businessman to arrive in London early morning and for a UK resident to get out of Moscow at 18:10. But the price paid for this is a 9.30 flight out of LHR - really very early. I'd have to leave home at 4.30am to check in. And as for the overnighter out of LHR. Fine on an 8 hour flight with some sleep but not great on trip as short as this where you miss a night's sleep completely. Bottom line is I'd choose to go a day early or come back a day later than put up with these flight times and I suspect most would do the same. They may not get too many more passengers on two flights than they would have done previously on one.

Can understand this schedule from the point of view of having one aircraft dedicated to the route to-ing and fro-ing but it doesn't look great from a practical point of view.

Practical doesn't come into it. It's having a schedule that might tempt a non-dedicated BD flyer away from BA, Aeroflot and Transaero flights.

I'd choose to go a day early or come back a day later
Not every business traveller has the luxury of choice.

Worth bearing in mind that Transaero (UN) is also to double its service, so the route will eventually be sold as four-daily, although I haven't yet seen a new schedule from UN or a start date.

But the price paid for this is a 9.30 flight out of LHR - really very early.

For a business flight, 09:30 is actually rather late.

And it also specifically timed for good connections from many of bmi's regional airports.

Bottom line is I'd choose to go a day early or come back a day later than put up with these flight times and I suspect most would do the same.

You've clearly never been to Moscow on a budget that you control. Justifying an extra nights hotel stay to yourself, let alone your boss or your client forces even the most sleep deprived to make use of the available flying schedule as best as possible to avoid an additional £600 a night stay.

Not every business traveller has the luxury of choice.

Worth bearing in mind that Transaero (UN) is also to double its service, so the route will eventually be sold as four-daily, although I haven't yet seen a new schedule from UN or a start date.

Russian government is probably still sorting out how much bribe money UN has to pay up to get the good slot times. :D

The hint was "eastwards" although as NickB
Edit to add Moscow schedule (BD flights only):

BD895 depart Heathrow 2155, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 0445
BD896 depart Moscow Domodedovo 0635, arrive Heathrow 0750
BD891 depart Heathrow 0930, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 1620
BD894 depart Moscow Domodedovo 1810, arrive Heathrow 1940



Saw this a few days ago. Good move on the timings--a few minutes earlier than BA on the eastbound overnight, but with superior comfort, and 45 minutes later than BA westbound. An 0730 or 0800 westbound would be even better. The later westbound evening departure is also good. The 1700 BA is tight if one has a real afternoon meeting; for this flight, one would just need to catch the 1600 train to DME, allowing for a reasonable afternoon.

It will be interesting to see what times UN adds. A 1600/1700 eastbound LHR-DME would be a sure winner, and would also match with a mid-afternoon flight DME-LHR (a "lunch in Moscow dinner in London" flight?).

On my last flight on UN (DME-LHR) they accepted by Diamond Club number, though I still had to mail in the BP for manual credit. This is significantly better than the situation a few months ago, when UN personnel claimed to have no connection to DC.

If you speak to my other half, he wants an evening departure from DME (approx 9pm) as that means you don't loose half a day at the office because you have to leave early to fight the Moscow traffic to get to the airport. The current BD flight departure from DME is effectively a mid afternoon because of this so I don't think adding at 1400-1500 is going to be appealing to the business market.

At the moment they are giving some of their flights to BA because of this despite the better comfort offered by BD - that said, he complained that despite the generous pitch, the recline on the mid-haul seats is pretty poor.

It's also once again showing BD's weakness in only have 3 A330 aircraft (not that many of us have harped on about this)

Why does this continue to be the case? Other airlines are picking up A330/A340 fomr the lease market (I read last week that Turkish are doing this). Does BD have particular needs that forces them not to take these birds?

Why does this continue to be the case? Other airlines are picking up A330/A340 fomr the lease market (I read last week that Turkish are doing this). Does BD have particular needs that forces them not to take these birds?

Wasn't the reason previously to do with engine compatability? However not sure if that is still the case now though with more A330s hitting the market.

I vaugeley remember there was an engine/compatibility issues lurking around, hence why the A330 order was suspended.

One would wager a lack of Rolls Royce powered G700 units available, with a A340's being "too much" of an aircraft (not that the MAN-ORD/LHR-JED would mind passengers would mind a bendybus).

For a serious attempt at

As the 787's are now going from delayed to very delayed, nearly anything modern is being snapped up and put back into use (even in a downturn - aircraft age still...).

Of course, things back when the order was taken were a bit more certain. Now however...

I'm sure when LH get their greasy mitts on BD they will be able to lend a yellow bus or two to BD like they did to LX. LH does seem to have a Noah's ark fleet so there is lots to choose from!

Not every business traveller has the luxury of choice.

Worth bearing in mind that Transaero (UN) is also to double its service, so the route will eventually be sold as four-daily, although I haven't yet seen a new schedule from UN or a start date.

Well that's potentially good news.

I can understand the comments others made about early morning regional connections but what's the point in leaving home at the crack of dawn to arrive at the end of the working day. May as well leave later and arrive at 8 or 9pm refreshed for the next day.

Tempted as I am to continue to debate the new schedule further, I suspect there's little point and time will tell if others agree with me.

As for thise who criticised me for saying I'd prefer to stay in a hotel until the next morning than miss a night's sleep, going straight to the office after an overnight to Moscow arriving at 5am isn't an option as my company safety rules wouldn't allow it. Not sure the EC Working Time Directive would either!

going straight to the office after an overnight to Moscow arriving at 5am isn't an option as my company safety rules wouldn't allow it.
Would love to know where you work!

Would love to know where you work!

Indeed! I have always at least gone to the gym for a workout and shower and then had breakfast before going to work, but I know plenty who skip the first and last before going to work.

Unfortunately it became clear tonight that this (switch of LBA-LHR to Embraer) isn't just for the Winter 08-09 timetable but is likely to remain the case for the medium term.

Senior crew on the BD420 tonight confirmed that the station (Leeds) needs to lose 14 staff, either voluntarily or otherwise. Understandably, whilst still highly professional, the crew weren't in a great mood tonight. They have my sympathies as they've made the route a pleasure to fly for the last few years.

Senior crew on the BD420 tonight confirmed that the station (Leeds) needs to lose 14 staff, either voluntarily or otherwise. Understandably, whilst still highly professional, the crew weren't in a great mood tonight. They have my sympathies as they've made the route a pleasure to fly for the last few years.

Yeah, not good news for the staff. Sounds like MME is going full time to ERJs too, with staff cuts as well. Also some ground cuts in BHD, LHR and GLA according to pprune.

From the grapevine: AA downgrading ORD-MAN (and ORD-DUB) to a 757 from this winter. Interpret as you wish...

From the grapevine: AA downgrading ORD-MAN (and ORD-DUB) to a 757 from this winter. Interpret as you wish...

However they have announced that the route is back to daily frequency for summer '09. Not sure on the equipment though.

If the 757 does indeed make an apperance it will be merely a capacity downgrade rather than a product downgrade as the plan is to install NGBC onto a subfleet of 757s.

Seeing as half AA's ORD flights are filled with pax to MCO and MIA it won't be an issue they can't rectify through good yield management through LHR. I can't see a particular impact on BD through this really.

I've just read about the following route cancellations.
I assume this is just for winter?

"Heathrow-Ankara Esenboga: Route will be suspended as of 25th October
Heathrow-Ekaterinburg: Route will be suspended as of 25th October 25
Heathrow-Yerevan-Tbilisi: 4x weekly combined A320-200 service as of 26th October replacing non-stop route"

It will apparently "lease two additional A321-200s".
www.ch-aviation.ch

Ankara and Ekaterinburg were already discussed here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=10302884&postcount=26) when the winter schedule was announced. Perhaps moderators can combine?

I don't think Ekaterinburg will come back because of the new Transaero codeshares beyond Moscow which are specifically designed to route traffic through DME.

Ankara loads are crap apparently, and only some of the services were direct. That won't be back either unless it becomes possible to do a direct service at a sensible frequency.

Interesting to see they are leasing A321s...I thought they already had four on the way. The first of the five, G-MEDN, has already been flying since May so I don't understand the need to lease.

Booger, I wanted to go to some of those place

Is the removal of the non-stop LHR-TBS service a clear sign that Russia's invasion of Georgia has damaged international business links? I wonder if any of the major international hotel construction projects in TBS will also pull out.

Ankara and Ekaterinburg were already discussed here when the winter schedule was announced. Perhaps moderators can combine?


Threads merged for your continued re-reading pleasure :)

Is the removal of the non-stop LHR-TBS service a clear sign that Russia's invasion of Georgia has damaged international business links? I wonder if any of the major international hotel construction projects in TBS will also pull out.The BD LHR-TBS was only ever three times I week. I suspect loads weren't chocka then so it makes some sense.

Now I had been planning to burn some miles on a trip to TBS next Easter - Z1-Z2, no connection - marvellous! However now that the flight makes a stopover in EVN both ways, does that mean the Z1-Z2 connection charge comes into play, even though it is the same flight number? I hope not!

The combo of TBS/EVN flights is a return to how BMED used to run them - I flew to TBS via EVN a decade ago!

There shouldn't be any connection charge. It's still a direct flight so unless the ICC is being particularly difficult you shouldn't have to worry about any extra miles.

Edit to add Moscow schedule (BD flights only):

BD895 depart Heathrow 2155, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 0445
BD896 depart Moscow Domodedovo 0635, arrive Heathrow 0750
BD891 depart Heathrow 0930, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 1620
BD894 depart Moscow Domodedovo 1810, arrive Heathrow 1940



The new UN flights are also now loaded on UN's website.

UN333 depart Moscow Domodedovo 1005, arrive Heathrow 1115
UN444 depart Heathrow 1225, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 1930
UN353 depart Moscow Domodedovo 1500, arrive Heathrow 1610
UN354 depart Heathrow 1830, arrive Moscow Domodedovo 0135

The timing of UN354 will be welcomed by many of us. However, the flight is showing as being operated by a 737-500, which has only 12 J seats.

The new frequency does not yet appear on either bmi's website or ITA.

There shouldn't be any connection charge. It's still a direct flight so unless the ICC is being particularly difficult you shouldn't have to worry about any extra miles.
I agree logic would dictate that, but you know what the ICC can be like ;)

The new UN flights are also now loaded on UN's website.
Good spot chalf, thank you ^

I wonder if the BD codes are on the DME-SVX yet?

...prompted Bmi to downgrade services on four domestic routes. Smaller planes will be used and flights will be retimed. It’s also resulted in Bmi taking the unusual step of removing aircraft details from its website so, at the time of booking, passengers no longer know which plane type will be operating their flight. This move affects all Bmi flights network-wide.

The affected routes are those linking London Heathrow with Aberdeen, Durham (Teeside), Jersey and Leeds. All four services will become less attractive to passengers starting with the introduction of the winter timetable on October 26

Not only is Bmi cutting capacity by up to two-thirds but schedule changes make flight timings less convenient. This could prevent passengers from making a day trip and might mean that taking the train, rather than opting for Bmi, will get you to your destination earlier in the day.I can't really see them down grading the LHR-Jersey flights. They're RJ145 already and business cabin is just the first row with some shortbread - easily adjustable on the day.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/bmi-downgrades-domestic-flights


This does now explain why the call centre can't pre-assign seats readily, except for the MAN - North America reroutes where the aircraft type remains fairly constant.

Not sure if this is the best thread but I just read the below article. Just a confirmation of much of the above but I didn't realise that the A330 order was cancelled, thought it was just deferred

http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=14423

Was speaking to Bmi crew today in ABZ they said that of the six daily flights in winter from ABZ to LHR (and returns) only three will be ERJ145 and three will be A319. Checked seatcounter and this seems correct so they havent downgraded as much as was expected. Not sure if other airports like Leeds/Durham will be the same.

No redemption flights on ERJ145s though only on A319. Sensible I suppose.

No redemption flights on ERJ145s though only on A319. Sensible I suppose.

According to who?

According to who?

ANA seems to be showing no redemption seats on these, just the A319s as well.

ANA seems to be showing no redemption seats on these, just the A319s as well.

I'm not sure if it's the ABZ-LHR route specifically, but I've seen redemption seats recently on LBA-BRU operated by E135/E145.

I'm not sure if it's the ABZ-LHR route specifically, but I've seen redemption seats recently on LBA-BRU operated by E135/E145.

Sorry, yes that was based on the ABZ-LHR route specifically. Like you say, I don't think it is aircraft specific elsewhere.

Sorry, yes that was based on the ABZ-LHR route specifically. Like you say, I don't think it is aircraft specific elsewhere.

Thanks. ^

It is a shame we have to wait until spring before the next A321 arrives - a year after the last one (G-MEDN). I realise there is little point in taking delivery of an aircraft in the middle of a timetable but surely routes like TLV, CAI and BEY could benefit from the stability sooner rather than later.