ajamieson

A piece by Victoria Moores in Flightglobal, published yesterday, based on an interview with the CEO, which states Diamond Club is planning to join M&M. It gives no timescale, and no direct quotes.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...-strategy.html

It does, however, give a very good summary of where we are currently at regarding LHR slots and strategy: even more cuts to domestics (the second time he has threatened that) in favour of midhaul, more regional feeders to Europe hubs, cut more back office staff, new pillow cases on midhaul, er, that's it. Again, it seems the country house HQ with nice gardens, nowhere near the airline's operational base, is an indispensible necessity.

oliver2002

Well written article ^

starflyergold

Oh how wonderful, yes I really enjoy those "perfect" timings from DUB

Tiger_lily

Oh good. I just got rid of another 37.5k miles just now, so only another 45k to get rid of.

ajamieson

Yes, nicely written. But it appears the CEO was not challenged about his ridiculous claim to have "prime timings" on domestic routes, nor on the fact that, when a previous article cited further domestic cuts, the press office insisted he had been misquoted and meant only seasonal changes. So either the CEO or the press office is telling lies, or neither knows what the other is doing. The fact that this hasn't been clarified simply confirms my worst fears that LH is ignoring the core UK+Ireland to LHR market in the belief that direct European feeder traffic will replace it; in reality, Ireland and non-London UK customers want both and if you faff them about on their core trips to London you are unlikely to keep their business for anything else. This is the mistake KLMuk made in 2001 when it axed its domestic operations. And it is a particularly stupid retrenchment when Flybe is busily making itself the biggest part of AF in the UK and BA is opening up its loyalty scheme.

It seems bmi wants to replace its existing customers with those who want to get seamlessly from the Middle-East to North America. Okay, I'll take the hint and fly with someone else. But will these new customers actually stay with bmi without the familiarity of the brand, the incentive of the loyalty scheme and the short-haul sectors? I doubt it; they will see all the obvious flaws of bmi without any of the mitigating factors.

IMH

Hmmm. We cannot completely rule out fibbing, of course, but on past form a woeful lack of communication seems more likely.

It does seem that now would be the moment -- possibly the last possible moment -- to start rebuilding reputation and image by adding a few domestic and Ireland flights (and taking "perfect" timings to the next level... ).

Raffles

I'll be back over 1m once I've paid my tax bill in January

GoldCircle

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner (as our American cousins say). I use LH for my middle-east and Africa business trips. (An unfortunate irony, under the circumstances).

At least in DUB we have a useful airline called Aer Lingus with bigger planes, better frequencies, great food for a fiver and interline agreements with absolutely everyone. Oh, and a decent terminal at DUB from next month. bmi is an irrelevant foot note from the past that brings Brits with more money than search engine experience to the emerald isle.

It used to be so very different.

Efrem

You do realize that, by posting a fact, you have just reduced the speculation fraction of this thread to 99.74 percent?

alanw

As it's not a NEW fact, I'm pretty sure it can be discounted.

GuckyGucky

That's surely speculation

Jetstreamer

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but I just got around to reading the November edition of Airline Business which contains a "focus" on bmi strategy, and an interview Herr Prock-Schauer.

I found this part telling (quote from author not directly from HPS):

"(bmi) is also working with the wider (LH) group on financing, procurement and hedging, as well as some marketing functions, and bmi is planning to join Lufthansa's Miles & More frequent flyer scheme, shifting away from it's own scheme Diamond Club..."

It was also interesting to hear the bmi will be getting 10 LHR slot pairs back over the next few years that are currently leased out to allow for expansion. The article also hints that a Transatlantic resumption may be on the cards in the next few years to connect the mid-haul markets with N.America.

IMH

That's the article ajamieson told us about ten or eleven posts upthread.

Worth a read, if only to get us all speculating again.

Jetstreamer

Oops!

crazychicken

Although it is not exactly about DC integration, more bmi intergration, but I do not want to start a new thread about it...

Flew UA across the pond and listened to 'Flightdeck conversation (UA feature on their audio system)'. There was a bmi bird right behind us for take-off and the pilot with a unique German accent called the tower as flight LHxyz, but there was no LH metal around... Just sounded weird to see and hear bmi metal been integrated...