Lufthansa to buy bmi

Im not talking about BA management, Im talking about from an operations poit of view-baggage handlers etc, unmotivated and in-efficent.

But why cant FR buy EI yet LH can buy BD, regardless of what type of ”airline” FR are they are all companys whos main goal is to achieve a profit.

Because a combined EI/FR would pretty much monopolyse the Irish market. A combined BD/LH would not come close to monopolysing the LHR (london) market.

at the moment they are just as clueless as BA with what they want!

BA have had some bad press lately, and quite rightly so, and industrial relations are at an all time low, but don’t imagine for one second that BA management don’t know what they want!

1L.

Would you sell your car to the first ‘chav’ that came along or to a car enthusiast who would respect it and look after it..?

That would depend if my car was a Ford Fiesta or a Ferrari Enzo. 😉

I think bmi comes out more in the Ford Fiesta bracket if I’m honest…

If the chav was going to be paying the same as the enthusiast, then I would have no qualms selling it to him!

But why cant FR buy EI yet LH can buy BD, regardless of what type of ”airline” FR are they are all companys whos main goal is to achieve a profit.

Would you sell your car to the first ‘chav’ that came along or to a car enthusiast who would respect it and look after it..?

But why cant FR buy EI yet LH can buy BD

Irish Pride!

But why cant FR buy EI yet LH can buy BD, regardless of what type of ”airline” FR are they are all companys whos main goal is to achieve a profit.

Yeah but do you really want a LCC airline which charges you for checking in, having hand luaggage,aswell as hold luggage (and by the time you have finished you might aswell go with the national carrier the amount of money you spend with FR)taking over the national airline of Ireland. I dont think so.

Well my opinion is that this would be a great move for both LH and BD.

I cant really see This may also give the BD staff at LHR a kick in the ass that they need, this is from personal expierence when they are comparing themselves to BA at LHR they havnt got a hige amount to live up to.

Another problem they may face is the EU. LH can buy LX and BD, AF can buy KL but FR cant buy EI, Im not a huge FR fan but I have to ask myself if the EU are showing bias to the ”flag carriers”.

Now things become interesting

If Lufthansa infact buys BD, then things become interesting in the EU. LH will be changing its thinking as what its role is. Currently it is a German airline with a small Swiss fling. If they buy BD then they become a true EU airline. As an American I think this is good for LH and certainly BD. It is an evolution in European thinking, that is out of the box (the German box). I know this is going to **** off UK members, but this is just a further evolution of Europe as a unified state.

BA will now have to make the next move and I assume that would be IB.

I would like to add that the empoyees of AZ did AF/KL a big favor. What was AF/KL thinking anyway? An ego in Paris brought down to earth I suppose? AF has become a great airline. AZ would likely have destroyed it.

Bill K
Boston, Massachusetts

All the talk of similarities with Swiss is a bit of a red herring.

Access to ZRH is vastly different than access to LHR…

Personally if you need eveidence of what will happen to BD if LH takeover look no further than LX and some other companys!!

In that case BD has a good future ahead. LX is doing quite nicely. Air One, LH Italian affiliate, is doing good as well and even made an offer for AZ with some other companies (there goes Air One :rolleyes:).

Personally if you need eveidence of what will happen to BD if LH takeover look no further than LX and some other companys!!

I guess LH will run bmi like a British version of Swissair. Planes still painted in bmi colours, but a division of LH. There are some place, like LHR-NYC, where there is no Star Alliance carrier. Would LH want to fly that with its own branded planes – bmi and CO/UA will do that service as an airbridge, if CO/UA merger goes ahead.

BMI would have to benefit from LH’s purchasing power for aircraft. Will bmi just feed LH long haul services to Asia? When there is a strong market from the UK, LH would let bmi do its own thing. BMI could use planes from LH fleet – A340-600s if needed, and even A380s.

I don’t think this is any less sad a day than when KLM bought Air UK, and I think the end result may well be the same.

1L.

Yip, don’t expect to see Bmi as a brand for too much longer if this goes through…

Nick, I’m not sure how much of what you say is what you would LIKE to happen, but I’m afraid I don’t think much of it is likely.

Firstly i dont think LH will use all of the LHR slots

LH have been quite open about wanting slots at LHR for open skies use. I think BD may be lucky to be left with any.

I also think that they will slowly close down the Eastern Side of Operations so that instead they via FRA or MUC.

And how is LH getting rid of any part of the BD network good for BD or the UK?

Also i think that LH will get onto the goverments back and hopefully in 10 years time we will have our first high speed train link between LHR and Manchester!!!

I can’t see how LH could care less about trains in the UK, or for that matter why the government would care anything for what LH thought on the subject.

Another thing i think they will do is now use MAN very wisley. I think they will expand MAN into a USA hub with most BMI flights been USA bound from MAN to places such as IAD JFK ORD YYZ and some in the caribean.

As above I think LH will use the slots for their own benefit, perhaps even pulling the longhauls to expand their own German routes.

I don’t think this is any less sad a day than when KLM bought Air UK, and I think the end result may well be the same.

1L.

Sounds like a clever way to sneak past fighter command! 😀

Quite sad another British company is going to be run by a foreign company but Lufthansa are a clever company so no doubt they will keep it on track and do good things with it!

Does this mean the lo-co arm of the business will be renamed ‘Achtung Baby’ ? :rolleyes: