Bmi is one of the newest members of the big, happy Lufthansa family, and it’s been interesting to see where Mother Lufthansa play with the airline to make it fit into its larger route network. Yesterday we saw that happen a bit with the announcement of a codeshare agreement between bmi and fellow Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss. That’s an extension of a partnership that started earlier this year with Swiss entering the Heathrow-Geneva market (potentially with slots acquired from bmi).
Photo Credit: bmi.
The codeshare is pretty simple to understand as it is quite wide -ranging: all UK to Switzerland routes. In a press release bmi says “will allow bmi to offer fares between Zurich, Geneva and Basel from London Heathrow, London City, Manchester, Birmingham International and Edinburgh and improve connections between Switzerland and the wider bmi network.”
But, in addition to this codeshare, we’ve seen some other interesting moves within the Lufthansa family. For example, bmi is launching flights from Heathrow to Vienna, a market that is currently served by Austrian as well. And this article from Business Traveller shows some interesting moves bmi has been making with its sister airlines in some other markets.
As usual, this will be fun to watch and see how Lufthansa positions its various airline brands around Europe.
British Airways’ cabin crew are planning to strike from December 22 to January 4, which obviously is the absolute worst timing for many passengers (the airline is attempting legal action to prevent the strike, though). A couple of companies have decided to turn the strike into an opportunity – the best effort I have seen so far is from EasyJet, who would stand to gain from the strike as passengers flying short-hauls out of London try to adjust travel plans. So, they tweeted this yesterday:
Sure, it’s an offer that’s only available to a small number of passengers, but it’s still a nice gesture to try to win customers.
Some other companies have stepped up. Virgin Trains, for example, is increasing service between London and Glasgow. (I’m kind of surprised that Virgin Atlantic hasn’t said anything about long-haul service yet.) Meanwhile, bmi said in a press release that the airline “will do all we can to assist passengers who have been caught up in the dispute,” though no specific details are given.
Last week, bmi announced some restructuring moves as the airline and the whole industry face “the challenges of a downturn in demand and the worst recession in the UK since records began.” The airline will be cutting its fleet, and as a result, some routes will be cut.
The mainline fleet is dropping from 39 to 30 aircraft, here’s how the fleet will look after these changes:
Continue reading ‘bmi to Trim Fleet, Routes’
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