Bmibaby to be grounded – jobs of nearly 500 staff may be lost

IAG has announced that Bmibaby will be grounded on 10th September, with some routes being stopped as early as next month.  This will affect almost 500 staff.  BMI Baby employs 497 staff in the UK, including 83 people at its Castle Donington headquarters, as well as 98 pilots, 117 cabin crew and 76 operations staff based at East Midlands Airport.  IAG said it was still willing to sell airline, but it didn’t expect to find a buyer for the carrier which is losing £25m a year.   BA said it is more optimistic of being able to sell Aberdeen-based Regional.  They will be making reductions to bmibaby’s flying programme from June with many flights ending on 11th. Monarch has announced it is launching a new base at East Midlands Airport to plug the gap left by the grounding of bmibaby.  It will also offer additional flights from Birmingham.



 

And later news:

BMI REGIONAL IS SOLD FOR £8M

11.5.2012  BRITISH Airways owner IAG has agreed to sell the regional business of newly acquired BMI for £8million to an Aberdeen-based consortium. BMI Regional, which operates 18 Embraer jets in the UK and northern Europe, is being bought by Sector Aviation, led by Ian Woodley, who founded a regional airline bought by BMI in 1996. The consortium is backed by Stephen and Peter Bond, who are also investors in Scotland’s Loganair. IAG chief executive Willie Walsh said a deal, which needs Civil Aviation Authority approval, should secure about 330 jobs.  link

Bmibaby to be grounded 

3.5.2012  (TravelMole)

 

Bmibaby will be grounded from September, with some routes being stopped as early as next month, new owner IAG announced this afternoon.

The move by British Airways’ parent will affect almost 500 staff.  IAG said it was still willing to sell the East Midlands-based budget airline, but it said recently it didn’t expect to find a buyer for the carrier which is losing £25m a year.
 
IAG acquired bmibaby along with bmi from Lufthansa, but while bmi is being integrated into BA’s mainstream operations, BA has no desire to run the budget airline.
 
BA said it is more optimistic of being able to sell Aberdeen-based Regional, which it also acquired with bmi from Lufthansa.
 
“Bmibaby has delivered high levels of operational performance and customer service, but has continued to struggle financially, losing more than £100m in the last four years,” bmi’s interim managing director Peter Simpson wrote in a letter to all staff.
 
“To help stem losses as quickly as possible, and as a preliminary measure, we will be making reductions to bmibaby’s flying programme from June. We sincerely apologise to all customers affected and will be providing full refunds and doing all we can with other airlines to mitigate the impact of these changes.”
 
Services to Belfast and from East Midlands to Amsterdam, Paris, Geneva, Nice, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newquay, and from Birmingham to Knock and Amsterdam, will stop on June 11.
 
The airline is still selling summer flights from East Midlands and Birmingham, but there will be no further flights from September 20.
 
http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?m_id=s~T_Y!vnm&w_id=9000039&news_id=2001355
 
 
 
and
 
 

Nearly 400 jobs are at risk as BMI Baby is to close down

 
Friday, May 4, 2012    Derby Telegraph
 

AIRLINE BMI Baby is set to close this September as no buyer has been found – putting up to 374 local jobs at risk.

Consultation with trade unions who represent staff at the Castle Donington-based airline began yesterday.

All BMI Baby flights departing from Monday, September 10, will no longer operate and the airline has promised refunds to passengers. Some other flights will stop in June.

BMI Baby employs 497 staff in the UK, including 83 people at its Castle Donington headquarters, as well as 98 pilots, 117 cabin crew and 76 operations staff based at East Midlands Airport.

And the number of jobs at risk at BMI Baby is in addition to the 1,200 redundancies at BMI Group as a result of last month’s takeover by International Airlines Group, parent company to British Airways.

Peter Simpson, interim managing director of BMI, said: “We recognise that these are unsettling times for employees, who have worked tirelessly during a long period of uncertainty.”

Colin Whyatt, of the GMB union, said: “This is absolutely devastating news. BMI Baby had been reorganised last year and GMB members hoped it would be sold.”

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Nearly-400-jobs-risk-BMI-Baby-close/story-16001156-detail/story.html
 
 
 
and
 

Monarch to plug gap in Midlands

3.5.2012  (TravelMole)

Monarch has moved quickly to announce it is launching a new base at East Midlands Airport to plug the gap left by the grounding of bmibaby. It will also offer additional flights from Birmingham.
 
The airline will launch new flights to key leisure destinations across the Mediterranean, including to Malaga, Alicante, Palma and Faro in Portugal from the Midlands in late summer.
 
In addition, it will expand its operations from Birmingham by adding more flights to Malaga, Alicante, Faro Rome and Palma plus a new route to Barcelona.

 

Monarch managing director Kevin George said: “In light of recent industry changes, opportunities have opened up in the market. It has become clear that the Midlands will be underserved as a region in the future, and that there is a lack of quality carriers to serve customers travelling from the area.

“As an airline with over 40 years heritage and a stronghold in the Midlands already, the expansion of our existing services from Birmingham and the launch of operations from East Midlands makes perfect sense for Monarch, and accelerates the strategy we announced last year to focus on the development of our scheduled operations into key leisure destinations across the Mediterranean, the Canaries and North Africa.”