Comments on: Lufthansa Now Owns bmi, Time to Talk to Virgin Atlantic?

By: roger

roger — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:45:40 +0000

it will be a sad day if LH get rid of BMI as this has been a very reputable airline ,flying for a very long time ,

i think LH should keep BMI under there wings .

By: Bobber

Bobber — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:52:58 +0000

If LH do move to T1 along with most of the other Star Alliance members that means a whole bigger group of passengers will get to experience the misery that is boarding a plane from the new T1 gates. I flew out of T1 yesterday (LHR-IAD) and if anything it was even worse than in July when they tried to board a LHR-DEN and a LHR-JFK (I think, US Airways) at the same time, from adjacent gates, with passengers from both flights muddled up together. Yesterday, the flight was not full, but the gate was absolutely rammed. People couldn’t get on the plane, people couldn’t get passed the gate (50) to get on their LHR-ORD flight at gate 56, it’s a complete cesspit of a building. OK, it looks pretty but is far from fit-for-purpose. The gates that LH might inherit from BMI are not that cool either, although there is a larger communal area at that end of the terminal that has great views of the runway. The other thing that is a major bummer since the move from T3 is that UA Premier members (that are UK residents) can no longer use the lounge as it is a Star Alliance lounge, not a Red Carpet Club. That small perk meant a lot to UK fliers. The UA rep I spoke to said that was the biggest complaint that they’d had since moving – I’d still rank the utter chaos that boarding a flight from those gates as being even worse than losing that last remaining perk. Shocking. The whole airport is a disaster.

By: simon f

simon f — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:04:18 +0000

I for one hope they retain the bmi brand and cabin crew/pilots, in whatever guise. I’ve been flying their LHR-DUB route weekly since June and have nothing but admiration for their professionalism, friendliness and general all-round good egg-ness.

By: CF

CF — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:43:51 +0000

Thank you, everyone, for correcting my stupid mistake on the amount. It was 400 MILLION. I would have fixed it earlier, but I was on the road all day long.

Artie – Thanks for pointing out the video!

By: Artie

Artie — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:01:21 +0000

Total side comment, but did you know your picture in the Canadian garb made it onto the Southwest Airlines Video Blog about their Halloween festivities? You should check it out at their blog website! It’s a great video, too!

By: Ellis Taylor

Ellis Taylor — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:55:50 +0000

Simon, the SQ link is a good point. I seem to recall that their CEO commented recently that their stake in VS had not been performing as they had hoped and they were going to put it on the market. Could they possibly approach LH to take over that stake while LH then effectively merges bmi and VS to create an integrated British brand?

Hmmm, I suppose a lot will hang on what SQ decide to do with that 49 per cent stake. Should be interesting!

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:55:04 +0000

VS is 49% owned by Singapore (Star) and are in T3 at LHR which is until 2012 at least, a Star terminal. LH are moving into T1 with bmi and the rest of the Star kids. Not sure where this is going other than there’s definitely already some synergy there. But kt74 is right – this is up to LH, not VS.

By: Gray

Gray — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:36:47 +0000

400 Euros! Man, maybe I should’ve tried to buy!

By: Airline consolidation we can believe in » Geoff Arnold

Airline consolidation we can believe in » Geoff Arnold — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:55:20 +0000

[...] The Cranky Flier considers the consequences of Lufthansa’s acquisition of bmi, and decides that the most likely outcome is: Take the London slots, merge with Virgin Atlantic, and create a very strong London brand that’s far greater than what Virgin has now. Oh, and yes, bring Virgin Atlantic into Star Alliance. Virgin is clearly interested. [...]

By: kt74

kt74 — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:22:43 +0000

@Dan … it could definitely work for Virgin… But it’s not up to Virgin! It is strategically compromised and isn’t in a cash position to buy any bmi assets. So Lufty holds all the cards – and why should they bail Virgin out?!