BMI

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British Midland Regional Future???

by Martin J Cowling 1 Comment

This post is an update of my earlier post: Bye Bye BMI. Sector Aviation (previously known as Granite Aviation) successfully bought Scottish based bmi British Midland Regional Limited for £8 million cash from International Airlines Group (British Airways/Iberia). Handover was completed June 1. IAG inherited bmi Regional when it bought British Midland from Lufthansa earlier in 2012. This sale included all of bmi Regional’s fixed assets and long-term liabilities, including owned and operating lease aircraft. The carrier has 19 Embraers. Sector Aviation is led by Ian Woodley who is now Chair of bmi Regional. In 1987, Woodley founded Business Air. It became…

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Bye bye BMI

by Martin J Cowling 6 Comments

I have always been a huge fan of British Midland. Yet, sadly, they are yet another example of “A great airline but a lousy business”.  British Midland Airways were born the year I was: 1964. They operated out of Manchester. In 2001 they became BMIBritish Midland and then just BMI in 2003. Ownership of the airline has always been vexed. SAS, BMI Chairman Michael Bishop and Lufthansa have all had involvements. Lufthansa has been full owner since November, 2009 and has lost a chunk of money on BMI (eg 285m euros of  losses and disposal fees in 2011). In…

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Who gets BMI?

by Martin J Cowling 2 Comments

I have always liked British Midland (BMI) and its various incarnations. Owned by Lufthansa since 2009, the loss making BMI is now up for sale. I really hoped Virgin Atlantic would be the buyer of BMI or a Virgin/ Etihad combo would hop in with an offer.  Vigin have had an interest in BMI off and on since 1999. The Virgin and BMI route networks would mesh well. Etihad are clearly looking for expansion by takeover. The major issue is that BMI is losing a lot of money. Virgin and its 49% owner Singapore, would not be keen to…

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