[RichHI1]

rferguson, thanks for that, it is amazing how much “information” on the net is garbage. I guess it si true, a little knowledge is a dnagerous thing.

[LeTigre]

Heard this from thebasource.com:

4th November 2011 – IAG bmi Deal Close.
British Airways’ parent IAG has reached agreement with Lufthansa to purchase bmi British Midland International for a reported £300 million. The sale remains subject to a binding purchase agreement, due diligence and clearance by antitrust authorities. bmi British Midland International owns 8.5% of London Heathrow slots and has a shorthaul Airbus fleet fully compatible with BA’s own. British Airways will also be keen to bring the former British Mediterranean Airways routes back under the BA banner. The deal would be solely for bmi British Midland International mainline and would not include bmi Regional or low cost bmibaby. Predictably Virgin Atlantic has made its usual noises about lack of competition at Heathrow proving disastrous for customer choice.

British Mediterranean Airways operated these routes:
Armenia – Yerevan
Ashgabat – Turkmenistan
Azerbaijan – Baku
Ethiopia – Addis Ababa
Egypt – Alexandria
Georgia – Tbilisi
Iran – Tehran
Jordan – Amman
Kazakhstan – Almaty
Kyrghyzstan – Bishkek
Lebanon – Beirut
Russia – Ekaterinburg
Senegal – Dakar
Sierra Leone – Freetown
Sudan – Khartoum
Syria – Aleppo, Damascus
Turkey – Ankara
Uzbekistan – Tashkent

That is probably about 15 slot pairs a day if they are mostly daily.

[RichHI1]

Interesting list…

[DClinPsy]

Mostly to Asia Pacific.

China, Korea (Seoul), Indonesia (Jakarta and Denpasar, Bali), Vietnam (Hanoi or Ho Chi Min City)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/04/ba-buy-bmi-virgin-atlantic?newsfeed=true

[JordanD]

Would not be surprised if a few of the old GB Airways routes make a reappearance too. Big leisure market who don’t want to travel EZY, for one reason or the other (ours is not to judge, etc.)

[LeTigre]

I am pleased that Walsh has openly said what slots will be used for before any announcements. It is also encouraging to see a focus on Asia. Presuming BA use half of the slots for existing short-haul services (transferring profitable European routes), give a few to VA and then use the rest for new long-haul, then surely that would hugely increase capacity at LHR. Each long-haul service would add about 150-200 more seats than the existing tiny regional jets/narrow-bodies so that would increase Heathrow capacity by a couple a million annually.

[RichHI1]

Hengli I do not think BA or Wee Willy will “give” anything to anybody. let alone slots to Virgin. Sell whether it is Slots or Grannies – Yes…

[sparkyflier]

On the issue of where BA should be flying to in Asia, they really have a lot of catching up to do. For example, KLM fly to:-

Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Manila,Taipei, Bangkok, KL, Singapore, Jakarta & Denpasar.

BA only muster Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok & Singapore.

Anyway, cities which are plausable and potentially rewarding must include maybe Guangzhou, Taipei, 2 X vietnamese cities maybe as a tag to BKK & KL.

South Asia Colombo must surely be good for O& D traffic.

Africa BMI already have Freetown & Addis Ababa, so keep these and add Monrovia, Douala & Libreville & maybe Kigali as a Addis tag, all with 767.

In Latin America Mexico must go daily and I really think BA need to do better in South America, not using Iberia, and maybe try and capture intra BRIC traffic which is increasing and which Iberia is not in a position to do, so new routes Bogota, Lima, Santiago & Brasilia, perhaps also Belo Horizonte.

Equipment wise, I understand some of BA european 767 are being converted to longhaul configuration (?), so maybe BMI 321s will be useful. In addition their mid haul business product could be used on BA longer eurpean routes like Moscow, Athens etc.

The BMI A332s could go to Iberia, who are very short of long haul equipment.

Would be good for Virgin to get more slots, but it is a bit rich of them to complain too much about this when they have not been using, and leasing out their own existing slots!

[VintageKrug]

Moscow is already getting a 747 in longhaul configuration, including http://www.newclubworld.com …. I would not be expecting much clamour for an improved product to Athens in the near future…..

You have correctly identified the key issue here; BA’s shortage of longhaul equipment.

The easy solution would be to put back the retirement schedule for some of the 747s, though I fear this is less easy than one might imagine due to the heavy maintenance required, the other alternative would be to pick up some orders cancelled by other airlines or lease from ILFC. It would seem sensible for the A330s to go to Iberia.

[RichHI1]

Unless the massed ranks of auditors, bankers and bankruptcy vultures start shuttling in. They require quality product for their clients’ money.

[VintageKrug]

There was already an IAG order being worked on for both BA and IB well before this development.

It’s not so much a can they afford it issue, much more an issue of how quickly they can expand the fleet – usual new fleet time horizons are 2-3 years, this will require some new aircraft within six months.

[LeTigre]

I believe that’s what second hand aircraft leasing was invented for.

[VintageKrug]

Though BA has a policy of purchasing aircraft, and on the rare occasions they have leased (I think some of the 777-300ERs are leased…?) they are normally leased from new.

[LeTigre]

I believe acquiring an asset that ensures future growth is a good excuse to break rules.

[sparkyflier]

As VK mentioned, 777-300ERs some may be leased, and some are also on the way, so these, combined with 747s coming out of storage, combined with 767s being transfered from euro fleet, may be sufficient to launch the new routes, however, the longhaul 767 that are being refurbished will also take away capacity.

767s are fgreat to launch routes with, however, a disadvatage (some would say there are many!) of the 767 is that they do not have crew rest facilities, so not good for flights 10 hours + for example.

I am not sure if the BMI 330-200s do have crew rest facilities, and if it is easy to install BA standard J and Y+ seats etc into them, but maybe these would be good aircraft to launch south american routes and/or asia routes.

Things will be made easier when 380s & 787s arrive but I believe that is still a way off?

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