Originally Posted by
Singapore_Air
It seemed more of a general vague comment. If Star Alliance do know what's going on they haven't communicated that to the front line. Ways to fill bmi's hole included: a side agreement with bmi to keep the feeder, increasing flights to the UK, looking at new alliance partners in the UK (well, there's only VS).
They do accept that the loss of bmi greatly dents Star Alliance's value proposition.
Well. if they said that, that is all very nice and civilised of them but I suspect it should be taken with a heavy does of salt and then some more. I really struggle to see what gaping hole the departure of BD will make to *A. Sure, most direct routes from London to the MEA and the 'stans will disappear but pretty much all destinations can be reached via FRA or some other Lufty Empire hub. As far as I can see, the only destination that will become unreachable with *A after BD departure is ATQ. I have never been to Amritsar and I am sure that the Golden Temple is as wonderful as it is reputed to be but I would struggle very hard to describe the loss of ATQ as creating a gaping hole in the *A network.
I really fail to see how the loss of BD "greatly dents" *A value in the eyes of other *A airlines. Admittedly, they wil lose some market share in the UK but, let us face it, given bmi's performance and the unsuitability of its network for many of its former customers, it was a dwindling share anyway.