IflyonAA

British Midland International is being merged into British Airways after IAG's purchase of the airline for circa USD 275 million and several routes are already loaded into British Airways timetables (BA.com, Expedia etc.) and Star Alliance will lose a member.

See https://twitter.com/airlineroute/sta...96121322504193

According to their website from North America they have been operating the following routes although some are codeshares:

Boston Logan. MA
Calgary. AB
Chicago (O'Hare Intl). Il
Edmonton
Halifax Intl. NS
Houston Texas (G.Bush Intercont). TX
Los Angeles. CA
Montreal (P Trudeau Intl). QC
New York (Newark Liberty). NJ
Orlando Intl. FL
Ottawa Intl. ON
San Francisco Intl. CA
Toronto (Pearson Intl). ON
Vancouver Intl. BC
Washington (Dulles). DC

For a full list of routes see here: http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/usef...oute-list.aspx

Potentially some expanded opportunities for us both on the paid fare and award front.

Another key point is that IAG will now get even more a foothold with their slots rising from 43% to 53% at LHR.

Interested to hear your perspectives.

irishguy28

All of these routes are codeshares. bmi has not operated any services to North America for some years.

These codeshares will likely disappear as soon as bmi leaves *A - don't plan on ever being able to redeem on these routes.

IflyonAA

The extra 42 slots gained are able to be used TATL or elsewhere - this is a major plus for us not only due to the possibility of new routes opening up but also due to the fact that timetable convenience for all of us could potentially improve.

Although IAG had to give up 14 slots in the deal due to competition laws, 12 of them are not usable for TATL and 2 of them are for Moscow.

Another significant factor for North Americans is that Virgin Atlantic relies heavily upon BMI's European codeshares to supply 25% of the airline's TATL passengers. Although my understanding is that BA must carry these passengers for the time being, in the long run, these may be cancelled if those passengers decide to stick with BA for the sake of convenience and would be a major setback for VS.

In other words, IAG gains more of a foothold on TATL and there may be implications on fares in the long run.

BMI does have two A330s - I don't expect to see them in BA liveries.

BA now offers codeshares to these new (for BA) routes:

• Yerevan (Armenia)
• Baku (Azerbaijan)
• Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
• Tbilisi (Georgia)
• Almaty (Kazakhstan)
• Freetown (Sierra Leone)

Other destinations that BMI has, BA doesn't are:

Amman
Amritsar
Beirut
Bergen
Bisher
Damman
DUBLIN
Hannover
Jeddah
Palma
Salzburg
Tehran

(Destinations from LHR's website)

It is also expected that BA will offer more of their all business flights via Dublin/Shannon to the US using the new slots.

nathockens

Too bad I funnel my star alliance status through bmi while I keep EXP on AA. Now I need to find a new star carrier.

Maybe I'll have BA status for a few months though -- that would be keen.

irishguy28

BA certainly must not "carry these passengers for the time being" - such traffic will remain on bmi.

As and when bmi starts to disappear - which could be quite soon - then Virgin would have had a problem. But IAG promised the EC the following: "IAG committed to entering into special agreements with competing airlines which operate long haul flights out of London Heathrow to provide these airlines with connecting passengers, including from UK domestic routes and other European routes. Passengers will therefore continue to have a choice to use other airlines than IAG when connecting at London Heathrow."

Cofyknsult

So what is finally happening to BMI-baby and other LC offsprings ? Surely, they are not viable on their own.

3Cforme

There was a lengthy thread commenced here at the time the deal was announced.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...s-buy-bmi.html

catwood

when can i start to get EQM's on LHR-DUB..that's what i'd like to know.