Odd news from Lufthansa today with two conflicting views coming out.
Speaking to ATWonline, LH Group are working with BMI management to redevelop a long term business plan to push BMI back into profitablity – something that BMI has failed to do for sometime thanks to poor route planning, weak UK & Ireland loads and various North African/Middle East crises hitting their target markets
Herr Lauer says “There is no doubt that bmi traffic suffers because the Middle East market has broken down almost completely,” and whilst London Heathrow slots are: “slots are a real asset, but slots alone don’t make a business plan. There must be a long-term solution.”
However… Airliners.de have a different spin on this. Now whilst my German isn’t that great and the Google Translation is worse, according to this story, Lufthansa wishes to sell BMI off… from the same source.
BMI is in a very odd position alas, thanks to it’s poor route choices, it’s ventures into territories before pulling out citing bad loads and revenue and the fools who run revenue management who need to be shot (and to be honest, looking at each time I’ve wanted to book a BMI flight, the prices have always been in the silly numbers)
The fact that BMI needs to change – but has only danced around the issues and not done a wholesale change. And it’s hurting the airline. And possibly it’s future.
