[Swissdiver]

LX wasn’t shafted by BA, LX mismanaged… They made a decision to then revert it and paid the price for it… That said, I agree they (LH & LX) might want to keep these slots.

[Henkel.Trocken]

I would expect slots to be retained to operate services that are in the interests of the LH group so those relating to services to GVA, VIE, TXL and maybe a few more.

IMO BA played some very dirty tricks with LX and did shaft them very badly. They would not have survived without LH and have gone on to be an excellent carrier who are superb to travel with.

[transtraxman]

Nobody has mentioned anything about BMI Regional or BMIBaby.

My thoughts on BMI and VirginAtlantic are laid out in the following post.

http://trans-trax.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-future-is-there-for-virgin.html

[Hippocampus]

@Disgusted You are right that it will be IAG’s decision because that’s where strategy/M&A now sits in the group but in the event of a deal IAG has been clear that bmi will be merged into BA. Where bmi sits legally (under IAG or BA) is likely to be driven by financing/tax/legal reasons rather than anything symbolic

@Henkel – LH group airlines have already extracted a large number of slots out of bmi (hence the fall in bmi’s % of slots at LHR from 11% to circa 8%). The fact that they were prepared to sell 6 slot pairs to BA suggests LH group already have what they need.

[Tete_de_cuvee]

Virgin is now holding talks with Etihad about a possible partnership if it takes over BMI

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Hippocampus

Yes, IAG will buy bmi, if the deal goes through.

That’s kinda my point.

[JJ51435]

Say it ain’ t so. Does BA need more gates at LHR? If LH cannot hold on to BMI, BMI should go to a carrier that can afford it. Anyone in the Gulf, India or China.

[RichHI1]

But that ain’t the way fortress europe works…

[LeTigre]

I read something earlier that said Virgin’s bid for BMI was alone- Etihad’s involvement may well be confined to taking a stake in VA to provide the capital behind the deal. This would be an astute decision for an airline that would no doubt like more LHR slots to AUH as the cost of taking a stake in a newly enlarged Virgin and getting some free slots may represent better value for money and time than waiting and paying a huge premium for plain slots. That way it not only gets more slots but gets a strong codeshare partner as well as a stake worth £100s of million that is sellable late on.

[pixelmeister]

Not sure that an Etihad bid for a further slice of Virgin would provide enough capital for VA to then buy BMI. Singapore may wish to divest themselves of their stake, but the price paid for that would not go to the Virgin Group, who at present hold 51(?)% If Virgin Group sell any more of the company, it loses control.

The question has to be if SIngapore and Etihad would then be prepared to shore up an enlarged Virgin operation until it could be profitable, or whether they might just look to dissolve the outfit and split the slots between them.

An IAG takeover of BMI may have some interesting side effects. A lower cost shorthaul and domestic operation could see a return to the BEA/BOAC model. In this case BA would cover the longhaul routes and an enlarged BMI would pick up all the existing shorthaul and domestic operations. Not sure what this would mean for BMIBaby though.

[Tete_de_cuvee]

More speculation on today’s news feeds-
Etihad seeking to buy the Irish government’s equity share in Aer Lingus;
IAG to buy Aer Lingus.
CEO of Air France-KLM to be dismissed at an EGM today.

[goalie11]

Picked up the latest here in Abu Dhabi

http://www.arabiansupplychain.com/article-6633-etihad-airways-mulls-virgin-atlantic-deal-to-buy-bmi/

[LeTigre]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/01/bmi-iag-idUSL5E7M133O20111101

It looks like IAG will get BMI but sell several slots to Virgin for competition sake- perhaps the best outcome.

Also BA will benefit from Airbus A320 interoperability will BMI’s 25 A320s plus 3 remaining orders. Perhaps the 2 A330s are really not enough to justify staying so maybe they will go to Iberia?

[stevescoots]

I wonder if Diamond club points will transfer over to BA miles..I have more than a few of them i dont see me being able to use in teh next 6 months as BMI dont fly where i want to go!

[Hippocampus]

It looks like events are moving at quite a pace and an initial announcement may be made tomorrow morning:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-03/lufthansa-said-to-reach-deal-to-sell-bmi-unit-in-u-k-to-british-airways.html

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