Yep, not content with diverting EDI - EMA passengers via JER, they cancelled a flight from Spain back to Cardiff last night. So, it's late in the evening and what does BMIBaby's rep do? Point to the chairs and recommend sleep!! No hotels, no refreshments, nothing. This airline manages to find new depths and keeps digging. Unbelievable.

While I am sure it was unpleasant for the pax involved, that is what you get for choosing a low cost carrier. I doubt Ryanair, Easyjet et al would respond any differently.

If you want to be looked after during irregular ops, pay the extra for a scheduled carrier.

Or pay for additional insurance. Some credit and charge cards also come with additional cover for this type of problem.

what did the pax do???

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.

We've all heard horror stories about low cost airlines...I just happen to think that BMIbaby takes it to the extreme with what they think is acceptable.

Yes, it's low cost, but there are minimum standards no matter how cheap the flight is...on board free food and exec. lounges I can live without...but when the last bus breaks down, the driver doesn't just put everyone off and tell them to wait at the bus stop until the next morning. I wouldn't expect an airline to do that either. Most of the passengers spent the night in the airport, some, like me, went to a local hotel (at my expense).

In contrast, I fly from LBA to DUB with FR quite a lot and they are very efficient. As WHBM says, they operate older aircraft and until recently were operating 732's on most of the UK/DUB routes.

Incidentally WHBM, I heard that the real troublesome BMIBaby aircraft (involved in the Jersey incident) was being returned to the lessor before going on to BY's low cost operation...did this happen?

... as long as everything goes to plan and aircraft don't break down and runways don't get covered in snow!

There was a Ryanair horror story that hit the press last Christmas about a planeload of pax that were left stranded at some some airport in the middle of nowhere overnight when their flight was cancelled due to snow. No offer of assistance whatsoever, Ryanair wasn't even prepared to put them back on the bus that they had just arrived on and take them back into town.

Yes, this was Boeing 737 No. 24695, which has become the fourth in the Thomsonfly fleet, now registered G-THOD for those of you booked on the new operation out of Coventry.

Anyone who has had dealings with a large mechanical fleet, like company cars, will know that of ostensibly identical units you get some that never seem to go wrong, some that are average, and some absolute lemons. Aircraft are the same, as any engineer will tell you !

If Toyota made planes...