Walsh confirms the closure of Bmibaby in September with job losses

IAG will press ahead with plans to close no-frills Bmibaby on 9th September. When IAG bought Bmi recently they said they would sell  Bmibaby after a 3-month consultation process with Bmibaby staff. This has now finished, and the decision is to sell.  Around 350 jobs will be lost at Bmibaby.IAG had already cut various Bmibaby routes from June, and now the remaining flights from Birmingham and East Midlands end in September. No buyer could be found for Bmibaby, though Bmi Regional was sold at the end of May.  BA is taking on around 1,500 of Bmi’s 2,700 staff – mostly pilots and cabin crew. The decision on which airlines’ will get the 12 Heathrow slots being given up by BA will probably be made in December. 

 


Walsh confirms the demise of Bmibaby

6.8.2012 (ABTN)
 by Rob Gill
BMI axe flights

British Airways owner IAG is to press ahead with plans to close no-frills airline Bmibaby next month.

IAG announced its intention to close Bmibaby shortly after completing the deal to buy Bmi from Lufthansa, subject to a three-month consultation process with Bmibaby staff.

Willie Walsh, IAG’s chief executive said: “We completed the employee consultation on August 1 and we have decided to close Bmibaby with effect from September 9.”

IAG had already axed a series of Bmibaby routes from June with the remaining flights from Birmingham and East Midlands to stop flying in September.

The airline had been trying to find a buyer for the no-frills operation but did not have any success – unlike Aberdeen-based Bmi Regional which was sold to Sector Aviation on May 31.

Walsh added that the integration of Bmi into BA “remains on track” and should be completed by the end of 2012 although he admitted it was a “complex transition” process.

BA is taking on around 1,500 of Bmi’s 2,700 staff – mostly pilots and cabin crew. So far, 87 pilots and 125 cabin crew have moved across to BA while eight of Bmi’s 25 aircraft have been rebranded and moved to BA’s Air Operator Certificate.

All Bmi flights are now featured on BA’s selling platforms and BA has taken commercial control of 80 per cent of these services. BA announced its winter 2012/13 schedule last month.

The decision on which airlines’ will get the 12 Heathrow slots being given up by BA as part of the deal to secure European Commission approval is unlikely to be revealed until December, according to Walsh.  (see below)

“We don’t know who is going to take them up,” he said. “But they are unlikely to be taken up before the start of the summer season which is at the end of March next year.”

Virgin Atlantic is among the airlines planning to apply for the short-haul slots to destinations such as Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Nice, Cairo, Moscow and Riyadh. Two further daily slots from Heathrow to Moscow have already been awarded to Russian carrier Transaero.

http://www.abtn.co.uk/news/0617674-walsh-confirms-demise-bmibaby

 


 

 

Earlier

Extract from:

Workers at under-threat airline BMI Baby launch petition in attempt to save their jobs

20.6.2012

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Workers-threat-airline-BMI-Baby-launch-petition/story-16420409-detail/story.html

……

Last month, it was announced that Castle Donington-based BMI Baby would close in September if a buyer was not found, putting up to 374 local jobs at risk.

The petition reads: “BMI Baby employees feel this takeover should never have been approved.  “The redundancy package being offered to BMI Baby staff is poor and unfair as we are unable to seek new employment before September 10 without facing losing our redundancy – thus missing out on other airline recruitment for this year. BA is also intending to use our aircraft to supply their routes in London – but still BMI Baby staff face job cuts. “We just want to be heard and treated fairly.  “It’s not just BMI Baby staff facing job losses but our ground staff face cuts as well.  The Midland airports need our airline to give lower-income families the chance to go on holiday without extra travel costs to London airports.”

BMI Baby employs 497 staff in the UK, including 83 people at its Castle Donington headquarters.

It has 98 pilots, 117 cabin crew and 76 operations staff based at East Midlands Airport.

….

IAG is in the process of merging BMI’s operations with those of British Airways, which it also owns.  This will result in 1,200 redundancies at BMI Group – which are in addition to the jobs under threat at BMI Baby.

 


 

This article suggests the loss of 400 jobs:

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Loss-making-airline-set-close-jobs/story-16001151-detail/story.html

 

 


ABTN said (29.5.2012)

The 12 Bmi slots being given up by IAG include 7 daily pairs to be used between Heathrow and either Edinburgh and/or Aberdeen.

There are also 5 daily slots which have to be used from Heathrow to Nice, Cairo, Riyadh, Moscow, Edinburgh and/or Aberdeen.

The Bmi slots will be allocated to other airlines through an independent company appointed by the EU with a slot conference due to be held in November to decide which airlines can operate the routes from summer 2013 onwards.

(Virgin wants them).

http://www.abtn.co.uk/news/2917412-branson-makes-pledge-bmi-routes