Actually BMIBaby (now becoming known as BMI-maybe) are treading a different path to Ryanair, whose record on punctuality, despite having 737s a generation older than Baby, has always been consistently good. In fact the industry, especially those who know 737-300s, are amazed at Baby's ability to have them strung round in distant parts of the network, broken down. It's happening most weeks.

Ryanair always had a couple of older 737s spare on the system. Baby this summer have 14 aircraft in the fleet (some consistent troublemakers) and 14 intensive daily details for them.

Notwithstanding that Baby are spending a fortune on chartering in replacement aircraft (both European Airlines - reincarnated !! - and Titan are contributing at the moment), their inability to recover sensibly is the key issue.

Industry discussion by insiders here.