This is what makes their recent award flight sale all the more curious where they've tried to increase the demand for redemption flights.

I guess the key difference in this case though is that the sale was only for bmi operated flights rather than partner airlines and hence no real out-flow of cash.

I am hopeful that if VS buy BD, VS will take BD's membership place in *A as well...

Hi,

Perhaps. But is this really a true, verified story?

You'd expect WPS and his cronies to know that the airline they manage is now up for sale? Is that not reasonable?

Regards,

It is curious that LH hasn't either corrected the story (if it isn't true) or confirmed it if it is...

I wouldn't be surprised if the LH board member spoke out of turn and his get out of jail card is the generic 'one of a number of things that is being considered'...

Either way, until we hear anything more substantial I'm hoping it's business as usual - and those losses are reduced / halted.

According to news source, it seem the sale of BMI is firmly in plan.

It is very likely LH will sell BMI to get the cash they needed to gain full control of Austrian.

The sale may be more likely to cut a deal with BA as VS is not interested to take over the short haul routes but only the slots. It may involve with fleet transfering within LH group. Some slots may be retained by LH for LH group expansion. BA is interested with certain number/type of the aircraft and the slots.

But as usual VS will stand out to be against the deal. Such a deal between BA and LH will be branded by VS as the big boys's secret trading in Europe. If the deal happen at all it will take ages to finalise due to the unhappiness of VS and objection from politicians in Brusselles. We should not be surprised to see BMI being divided by several parts and sold seperately.

(above statements were mainly speculation if not rumours.)

:confused:
So which is it? :rolleyes:

Yes they certainly did. Mini was the only thing the ever wanted (the BHX-MUC flight was jammed on Mondays and Fridays with production line management and they laid coaches on from the airport to Cowley) , plus the powertrain business (I was working there at the time)

But despite not taking Land Rover as part of the deal, they did strip out all of the useful technology from that part of the business.

Not all that curious - simultaneously fill otherwise empty seats, take in YQ that is greater than the underlying cost associated with transporting and servicing a few extra kilos of SLC, and reduce the liability on the balance sheet. I predict further such 'sales' or other mechanisms that have the same effect.

I think BD is for sale in the sense that it has been for sale for the last year or two - it's an unwanted liability; those of you at the SMD-I will recall the visceral reaction of revultion of LH's CEO when I asked him about bmi. Can anyone actually point to a "direct quote" where a senior LH exec explicitly says that the airline is actually for sale?

Reading the thread on this subject over on A.net suggests that the word 'sell' was inferred by the journalist rather than mentioned by the LH exec.
However we all like a good bit of speculation especially when it relates to the future of DC and BD :p

My own opinion is that we continue along the current path for the time being with lots of small cuts and efforts to repair the balance sheet (such as more 'sales' as explained above ). Eventually the airline may well be broken up as LH try to recover their investment, as I doubt very much we will see a buyer for the whole of BD as it exists today.

Since I cannot predict the future and DC remains the best *A program for my needs I intend to continue as normal until I hear something more concrete.

BMI would do much better if they stopped focussing on accessing bizarre places out of LHR and worked on connecting British regional airports to major worldwide hubs. This would open access for many people to do efficient long haul travel.

What do I mean? I mean regular, quality services from MAN, BHX and EDI to EWR, LAX, ORD, FRA, LHR, DBX, SIN. Not necessarily all of these, but this selection should put most airports in the world within 2 plane rides of anywhere in the UK without having a b***h of a commute to LHR. I'm sick of having to spend 20+ hours to get somewhere in the US from MAN, especially if it includes that grindingly awful terminal transfer service in LHR...

Would be great... Maybe... One day...

What he says .....

A sale can be either the worst or best thing that could ever happen to bmi.

Don't think LH did really have as much faith or interest in bmi turning around as they had with OS, past press releases have always seen them having much more confidence in OS than bmi. If they were that determined they would have taken things in their own hands over in FRA instead of leaving it all up to the guys in the hall! Much of LH interest was to see how they can develop the LH group from bmi's assets, and you can't blame them really when they actually own bmi.

Must admit it would be a great shame to see such a good bunch of frontline staff disappear along with one of the best aircraft liveries around, hope it doesn't get to that stage. ^

But KL has this market sewn up. 15 regional airports. At least 3 rotations per day, 4 or 5 in most cases. One can whinge about Skyteam all day long, but you can't say they don't offer blanket coverage of the regions.

Going East, EK flies from 6 airports, CO has 6 to the West.

I'd love to see more BD/ *A flights from the regions to FRA/ZRH, but they can't compete with KL on frequency or coverage, and their not big enough to (re)start long haul from the regions.

A Virgin Atlantic tie-up would possibly provide the 'brand recognition' required to make a decent run of this however.
That is my fantasy solution: a merger with VS with Diamond Club remaining unchanged apart from the ability to redeem cash+miles on VS from the normal rewards chart. Somehow I doubt it though!