BMI Baby Closing Down

[rb311]

It's the railways which are subsidised not the airlines.

Government taxation is clobbering non tax payer subsidised industry and customers have no choice but to travel on tax payer subsidised options. ie the railways.

So the message from the governement is. If you're unsubsidised, profitable and provide a product that customers want, we will tax you out of existence.

Good value eh?

 

[Failed Unit]

It's the railways which are subsidised not the airlines.

Try telling that to us poor suckers this side of the boarder that need to pay our taxes to airlines for "route development".

Then we have

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/air/Lifeline-Air-Services

Government taxation is clobbering non tax payer subsidised industry and customers have no choice but to travel on tax payer subsidised options. ie the railways.

So the message from the governement is. If you're unsubsidised, profitable and provide a product that customers want, we will tax you out of existence.

Good value eh?

Yep, it saves polution doesn't it, which is a good thing. It also means that we don't have to suffer getting treated like terrorists at airports which is also a good thing. I think that you will find that the UK only routes have other options anyway, such as flyBe taking them on.

I don't see what point you post is trying to make. BMI baby is loss making, are you suggesting that the taxpayer keeps it going. What exactly is the social need for the routes? Taxpayers all over the EU subsidise routes which would cause social hardship if they didn't exist, but you already know this anyway. It is just you are so anti-railway you would never admit this, nor would you admit that in some instances railway is better than air for a A-B journey!

Please let me know what routes will be lost that will force people onto trains when BMI baby will close?

Looking at East Midlands
Glasgow and Edinburgh will go to flyBe, don't know about the Newquay route which I suspect will force people onto the roads

Birmingham - Aberdeen (was this BMI baby)

Edinburgh / Glasgow - Leeds / Manchester (other airlines do the routes)

It is sad to see people out of jobs, but like all industries, if the business is profitable someone else will take it on.

 

[starrymarkb]

Was it not the case that out of about 3000 staff at BMI - 1500 worked in the Head Office?

Also I can't think of any situation where a Legacy airline (BA/BMI/Delta/United) has managed to create a successful low cost spinoff apart from Qantas with Jetstar and TBH I'm surprised BMI Baby has survived as long as it has! Especially when faced with Easyjet & Ryanair's more modern fleets with lower operating costs

I'll be interested to see how Iberia Express gets on, but initial reports are not good, especially on routes where they have replaced Iberia Mainline

 

[Failed Unit]

Was it not the case that out of about 3000 staff at BMI - 1500 worked in the Head Office?

Also I can't think of any situation where a Legacy airline (BA/BMI/Delta/United) has managed to create a successful low cost spinoff apart from Qantas with Jetstar and TBH I'm surprised BMI Baby has survived as long as it has! Especially when faced with Easyjet & Ryanair's more modern fleets with lower operating costs

I'll be interested to see how Iberia Express gets on, but initial reports are not good, especially on routes where they have replaced Iberia Mainline

I never really understood BMI baby as a business, it was really as far as East Midlands passengers were concerned BMI trying to turn itself into EasyJet, but not doing a good job of it.

 

[WestCoast]

Also I can't think of any situation where a Legacy airline (BA/BMI/Delta/United) has managed to create a successful low cost spinoff apart from Qantas with Jetstar

It's definitely possible, but bmi has lacked direction for many years and was a lost case before Lufthansa were compelled to take over (as per Sir Micheal Bishop's arrangement). The big joke was that bmi's inflight magazine couldn't keep up with their ever changing route strategy! Bmibaby were never really sure of themselves either; they expanded at Durham Tees Valley and then pulled out, Cardiff and Manchester bases were abandoned last year and routes out of Belfast City are a recent venture.

Lufthansa themselves have managed to create a good low cost airline by proxy, one of their regional franchises called Eurowings (which they owned about half of at the time) set up the highly successful Germanwings, and both firms have been fully owned by Lufthansa for about 8 years now. Lufthansa is now taking advantage of lower costs at Germanwings and getting them to operate some of their own flights (which mirrors Iberia Express).

KLM bought Transavia when it was strictly a charter airline catering to package tourists from Holland, and have turned it into a low cost leisure airline of the Air France-KLM Group, operating out of France and the Netherlands.

 

[starrymarkb]

KLM bought Transavia when it was strictly a charter airline catering to package tourists from Holland, and have turned it into a low cost leisure airline of the Air France-KLM Group, operating out of France and the Netherlands.

Ah I was thinking of Buzz...

 

[island]

I'm not sorry to see bmibaby go. Aside from the layers and layers of surcharges, my experience with their customer service and service recovery after a problem flight was very poor.