BMI is as we know a funny olde airline. It’ll run ERJ-145’s for the fun of it into it’s main hubs whilst sending off A320’s to do charter work.
As regular readers know we know their revenue management also has a weird effect helping putting those small planes on trunk routes.
Well BAA at Heathrow is sort of getting annoyed at the Domestic traffic, with them increasing the passenger service fee to the same price as the international fee (the fee you pay to travel through London Heathrow from from £13.43 to £20.25).
To the point where BMI has asked the Civil Aviation Authority to review the changes and filed a compliant.
BMI Chief Exec, Wolfgang Prock Schauer has gone on the offensive saying:
“It is clear that BAA is unfairly penalising domestic passengers at Heathrow and discriminating against airlines flying between Heathrow and Scotland and Northern Ireland.
BAA is favouring long-haul airlines and neglecting the needs of local, UK airlines serving the domestic and Northern Ireland markets.
BAA’s plans will cause huge inconvenience and higher costs for travellers and so we have written to the CAA to make it clear that we will be seeking legal remedies under the Airports Act 1986. Without doubt, these planned higher charges by BAA would damage the economic links between Heathrow and key regions across the UK.
bmi has written to the political decision makers in Scotland and in Northern Ireland to outline the damage that BAA’s higher charges would do to the economy. We are receiving enormous support from Scotland and Northern Ireland on a political level and from the business community.”
Alas, these charges aren’t good, least of all they’ll divert traffic away from UK domestic, turning it Heathrow into an “International hub only” , and most of all if you think BMI will food the bill for this, you’re dreaming – it’ll be the passenger.
Alas, BMI is on a loosing front as it cut backs it’s Domestic services and putting on smaller planes. There appears to be some change in the strategy recently with larger Airbus’s taking over from ERJ’s. But if BMI can’t fill an ERJ thanks to the Low-Cost Competition eating from below (in the form of EasyJet and Ryanair) and higher quality airlines (such as Aer Lingus from Ireland) eating from the top, what hope is there for BMI to fill an Airbus A319 – let alone anything larger?
Again, this is where runway 3 would had helped. Alas, that isn’t going to become a reality for at least the next 4 years,so BMI has to do something to get custom up. A few suggestions include:
- Running services that actually connect with long haul services
- Getting some of the codeshares back with other airlines
- Sorting out the pricing so it doesn’t look like someone in accounting has priced people off the plane
- Running a decent and logical frequency for some services
Of course, this is BMI. With all the advantages it has (Their lounges and the relative peace of Terminal 1), they have to learn and take advantage of what they have.
Or else the competition will eat them alive.