bmi regional

[GliderPilot]

Bye Bye BMI

Again.

 

[Ianbutty]

Again.

Welcome back BMI!

Just thought I would get in early.

 

[Matt995]

Not looking good for BMI regional, aircraft have been flown back to Bristol, another UK airline to cease trading?


BMI to collapse

 

[Brum X]

Not looking good for BMI regional, aircraft have been flown back to Bristol, another UK airline to cease trading?


BMI to collapse

Strange airline from the start with no clear direction. I wont be surprised.

 

[Ray Finkle]

It has now been confirmed, very sad for all of the employees.

https://www.flybmi.com/

 

[Aviador]

The airline has just gone into administration

 

[Aceshigh]

Did they still operate from Brum ?

 

[Brum X]

It has now been confirmed, very sad for all of the employees.

https://www.flybmi.com/

Yes very sad indeed to all those concerned.

 

[Ianbutty]

Thoughts with those who will lose their jobs.

Very sad news but even sadder that they are not alone. Low cost market ramped up seat numbers to unsustaianble numbers squeezing out the qeaker.

Ironic that O'leary used to complain about the unfairness of mega airlines against the smaller ones. And now...

 

[Matt995]

Did they still operate from Brum ?

No Birmingham flights, just another sad day seeing another UK airline go, going to be a very difficult year for all UK airlines, with Brexit, may not be the last casualty?

 

[jon01]

They operated charter flights most weekends from Birmingham during the football & rugby seasons. Their aircraft were perfect for this work

 

[Aceshigh]

Not sure it has anything to do with BREXIT.

If Jet 2 are expanding must that presumably be due to BREXIT. ?

 

[Jerry]

Not sure it has anything to do with BREXIT.

If Jet 2 are expanding must that presumably be due to BREXIT. ?

Yep blame Brexit for that! Lol

 

[Aceshigh]

Every failed company seems to be blaming their ills on BREXIT which I could understand if it was consistent across the wider airline industry, but clearly that is not the case.

FlyBMI had no clear identity with a basket of routes that I would suggest were at the very least niche, whilst others might say hotch potch. They started then pulled routes sometimes seemingly on a whim.

In my view it's supply and demand. A niche route is exactly that until the like of EZY AND RYR arrive to scoop up the spoils once a route is fully established. That to me is the main issue here as it was to a certain degree with FLYBE. It's simply a failure re competition in and would have happened regardless.

Using BREXIT is management speak for failure.

 

[finchy168]

Easy option blaming Brexit let’s be clear about one thing though – flying 522,000 passengers on 29,000 flights in 2018 means an average of just 18 passengers per flight. An Embraer E145 can seat 49 people whilst an E135 holds 37, so we are looking at very weak loads. Whatever factors are being blamed for its closure, the answer may be closer to home than the airline wants to admit. (Via Head For Points)

 

[Jerry]

Easy option blaming Brexit let’s be clear about one thing though – flying 522,000 passengers on 29,000 flights in 2018 means an average of just 18 passengers per flight. An Embraer E145 can seat 49 people whilst an E135 holds 37, so we are looking at very weak loads. Whatever factors are being blamed for its closure, the answer may be closer to home than the airline wants to admit. (Via Head For Points)

What you have to remember is that flyBMI was expensive, did a lot of routes backed by corporations and a lot of charters. I would not be surprised if Loganair takes up a lot of the UK routes in the future and the sports charters.

 

[JENNYJET]

I am thinking mainline BMI being absorbed into BA is the catalyst for the failure. The fleet are oversized executive jets and the numbers did not add up. The competition were using Boeing's and Airbus equipment and could market the routes better.

And as no aviation protocols have yet been established, BREXIT is in the mind's of journalists as an easy story. Simply placing BREXIT in the mind's of directors leads to an preconstructed answer to the inevitable questions. As ACES put it, do JET2 moan about EU politics?

As they remain in administration, the continue to function in the hope of finding a buyer step up please Mr. Ashley!

 

[Coathanger16]

Whilst I don't think Brexit was the sole or even largest cause of Bmi's demise, I don't think you can just dismiss it because it's not affecting other airlines in the industry.

Bmi's markets was very much focussed on business routes and to a lesser extent leisure which was predominantly city break based.

On the other hand, the likes of Jet2 are almost entirely summer sun getaways.

Brexit affected Bmi because it is causing uncertainty for businesses with a lot of them either considering moving work out of the UK or waiting to commit until the outcome of Brexit becomes clearer. The people that have been flying BMI are no longer booking flights because they are uncertain as to whether or not they'll need them.

On the other hand Jet2 are as of yet pretty much unaffected because whatever happens people will still want to go away on summer holidays. A £7 or £8 for 3 years visa is not going to put many people off, and as such Jet2's bookings are unaffected.

BMI is predominantly a regional airline, with competition from other regional airlines (Flybe, Loganair, Eastern & Stobart) as well as larger carriers like easyJet, Ryanair and BA.

Having 5 regional airlines for a country the size of the UK is frankly just stupid, so to have 1 go bust and 1 being bought out is of no surprise whatsoever IMO!

Why the likes of Bmi Regional, Flybe, Loganair & Eastern haven't merged into one airline I have no idea. After BA bought BMI and sold off Bmi Regional, and certainly after Flybe and Loganair split, Bmi Regional should have been looking to merge with Loganair and Eastern to form a strong competitor to Flybe. Eventually these airlines could have come together to form one airline, or even a group of airlines like IAG or Air France/KLM, each with their own market segment:

Loganair: routes within and to/from Scotland
Eastern: routes out of Newcastle and Leeds
Flybe prop: all other domestic routes
Flybe jets/BMI: all overseas routes

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Easy option blaming Brexit let’s be clear about one thing though – flying 522,000 passengers on 29,000 flights in 2018 means an average of just 18 passengers per flight. An Embraer E145 can seat 49 people whilst an E135 holds 37, so we are looking at very weak loads. Whatever factors are being blamed for its closure, the answer may be closer to home than the airline wants to admit. (Via Head For Points)

Their fares were generally eye-poppingly high. My wife and were looking at a stay in Hamburg on one occasion two or three years ago but the return fares on our desired dates of travel came in at about £600 each on the BRS-HAM route.Their onboard product was excellent according to most reports but their cancellation record was dreadful, although ironically it was improving (ie not as bad) in recent months. Sometimes a dozen (out of around 90) of their BRS rotations would be cancelled in one week.

If 18 was the average load across the network there must have been some real duds somewhere because some of their routes were more substantially filled at those high prices. The BRS to FRA and MUC routes (3 and 2 x daily respectively with LH codeshare) invariably averaged well into the 30s each month (established via CAA stats) - of course it might be that LH took a big share of the sector fare. The likes of DUS and HAM were weaker and without codeshare but were usually seeing an average of around 20, higher at times.

I was always reluctant to use them in recent years despite BRS being my local airport because of the regular cancellations.

 

[Jerry]

of course it might be that LH took a big share of the sector fare

I wonder if that may have been the problem for them. I wonder if for airlines like flyBMI routes to hubs like FRA and MUC are better off being operated on behalf of Lufthansa as an ACMI rather than on their own with a codeshare. Maybe that gives more security?