Think this has been on the cards for sometime hasnt it, but now it seems as though it is finally going to happen.
EDIT: More news just released…
From SkyNews:
The airline [Lufthansa] will take an 80% share of the UK company by buying the 50% owned by BMI chairman Sir Michael Bishop.
The deal is expected to be completed by January 16.
It will give Lufthansa control of more flights from London Heathrow airport than any other airline except British Airways.
Last month BMI declined to comment on reports that it had been approached by Abu Dhabi carrier Etihad over a possible merger.
For its part, Etihad would say it had spoken to a number of carriers.
BMI flew 10.6 million passengers last year, and operated 70 aircraft.
Like almost all airlines, BMI has seen its profits hit this year by the continuing high price of aviation fuel.
By: Jet 22 - 6th November 2008 at 16:36
Juding by LH’S track recored they will expand at LBA, DME, GLA, EDI, ABZ, and hopefully bring some sucess.
By: Comet - 6th November 2008 at 11:00
And what will happen to the regional flights from airports like EDI, EMA and LBA to places such as BRU?
By: Jet 22 - 31st October 2008 at 09:38
Isnt it partially goverment owned like 20 or 30%.
By: tenthije - 30th October 2008 at 20:16
There’s a lot more to be announced yet.
Might it have to do with Virgin, since you fly for them?
One has to wonder where Lufty gets the money from. In a few years they managed to grab hold of a lot of airlines. Swiss, SNBA, BMI, Austrian, talks with SAS, they are setting up a Lufty-Italy to operate next to their subsidiary Air Dolomiti.
By: Ren Frew - 30th October 2008 at 19:30
There’s a lot more to be announced yet.
Hmmm… A ‘Virgin UK’ or Europe perhaps ?
By: PMN - 30th October 2008 at 17:49
BMI (WW) will be the first to go, espically with the high competition from FlyBe.
And you’re basing this apparent statement of fact on what, may I ask? 😉
Paul
By: wysiwyg - 30th October 2008 at 17:36
There’s a lot more to be announced yet.
By: Jet 22 - 30th October 2008 at 08:48
SRB and VS have released a press statement but i cant find it (its on Airliners Net). Let me tell you it isn’t typical SRB, saying why should these grow, no it is something along the lines of, oh well we want a piece of the cake too.
So what could be on the cards is, LH if they can find it successful, buying the 49% stake of SQ. Thus they merge BMI and VS long haul operations together at LHR to operate more flights etc out of LHR.
By: David Kerr - 29th October 2008 at 19:19
BMI (WW) will be the first to go, espically with the high competition from FlyBe.
Well the “big news” announcement for MAN on 5th Nov takes on a new twist. Perhaps along the lines of WW actually rebranding back to mainline and/or regional to provide better connectivity. LH have previously stated that a fair number of business class pax transfer onto their BOM services, so I wonder if the lesiure routes may be foresaken in favour of Virgin with a view to starting to some of the destinations that have the biggest concentration of business class passengers connecting onto LH.
By: B77W - 29th October 2008 at 19:05
Since I heard about this earlier this year, I knew it was only a matter of time – hopefully it wont affect one of the, if not the best UK airlines service.
I can’t see them rebranding anything… not in the near future anyway
Heard rumours that baby will be sold off or shut down.
BMI (WW) will be the first to go, espically with the high competition from FlyBe.
By: mattfalcus - 29th October 2008 at 12:51
Any thoughts on what this will ultimately mean for their UK domestic network, or for bmibaby?
Heard rumours that baby will be sold off or shut down.
Matt
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October 29, 2008 at 11:23 am