BMI : BD ! BMA !

La compagnie aérienne britannique BMI, propriété de l'allemande Lufthansa, pourrait cesser son activité en raison de la crise, selon des documents internes révélés mercredi par le Times, qui ont forcé la compagnie à réagir en assurant que son avenir n'était pas menacé.

2009 AFP

In the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] at London's Heathrow Airport it is often tough to find out what really is going on.
That is currently the case for the announcement today that Swiss is returning to the Heathrow-Geneva market after a six year hiatus with a six-times-a-day schedule.
Now my assumption is that these slots are coming from fellow Lufthansa Group partner struggling UK carrier bmi - that's not a tough call really is it! And quite frankly using these slots on the profitable UK-Switzerland market makes sense from the group perspective.
The interesting background to this story is that [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]as part of the price for entering the oneworld Alliance and securing some much-needed cash from BA.
Swiss UK country manager Gregor Koncilja is careful not to say anything about the slot issue, but regardless he is clearly delighted to expand his Heathrow offering with the Geneva route.
Swiss also operates six times a day to Zurich from Heathrow, as well as seven times a day from London City Airport to Zurich. Its six time daily service from City to Geneva will go down by two flights when Heathrow begins.
Rather uniquely Swiss can sell both airports on one ticket, with some travellers jetting off from City to Switzerland directly from the offices in downtown London, but returning to the west of London Heathrow for more convenient access to home.
The new route will be operated with one Swiss Airbus A319 and a bmi A320 and the two carriers will also forge a wider codeshare pact for UK-Switzerland flights.

LONDRES, 25 nov 2009 La compagnie aérienne britannique BMI, propriété de l'allemande Lufthansa, a annoncé mercredi une restructuration portant sur le nombre de ses appareils et de ses trajets, aux termes de laquelle au moins 600 emplois devraient disparaître.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]'s UK carrier BMI is to hand back two of its three [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] A330s as it cuts nine aircraft from its mainline fleet, part of a restructuring which could involve shedding at least 600 positions.
The restructuring will involve axing loss-making routes from London Heathrow - among them Brussels, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo - in the first quarter of 2010.
BMI will also adjust capacity to meet demand and take advantage of the potential for synergies with its German parent.
Leases on two of its three A330s will not be extended when they expire in the first half of 2010, essentially ending BMI's ill-fated attempt to establish a solid long-haul operation.
[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]'s UK carrier BMI is to hand back two of its three [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] A330s as it cuts nine aircraft from its mainline fleet, part of a restructuring which could involve shedding at least 600 positions.
The restructuring will involve axing loss-making routes from London Heathrow - among them Brussels, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo - in the first quarter of 2010.
BMI will also adjust capacity to meet demand and take advantage of the potential for synergies with its German parent.
Leases on two of its three A330s will not be extended when they expire in the first half of 2010, essentially ending BMI's ill-fated attempt to establish a solid long-haul operation.

C’est au tour de bmi de passer à la restructuration. La compagnie britannique a révélé le 25 novembre plusieurs mesures pour tenter de limiter ses pertes et harmoniser davantage ses opérations avec le groupe Lufthansa. Les modifications prévues dans la flotte et le réseau pourraient mener à au moins 600 suppressions d’emploi.

Bmi va en effet suspendre ses liaisons vers Bruxelles, Tel Aviv, Kiev et Alep dès le mois de janvier. Les liaisons entre la capitale européenne et Londres seront reprises par Brussels Airlines. La ligne Heathrow – Amsterdam va quant à elle être supprimée en mars. La compagnie a également précisé que ses liaisons saisonnières vers Palma de Majorque et Venise ne seraient pas reprises cet été.

La flotte va également s’étioler. Bmi compte ne plus exploiter qu’une trentaine d’appareils, contre trente-neuf aujourd’hui. Les sorties seront principalement réalisées par le non renouvellement de contrats de leasing arrivant à expiration au premier semestre 2010. C’est notamment le cas de deux de ses trois A330-200. Leur départ marquera l’échec de la compagnie à établir une activité long-courrier suffisamment solide.

La filiale low-cost de bmi, bmibaby, avait annoncé sa restructuration au début du mois. Cinq de ses dix-sept appareils vont être retirés et 158 postes supprimés.

UK carrier BMI has quietly adopted a modified branding, giving the airline's full name as British Midland International.

When the brand was first unveiled in February 2001, the airline formally became known as 'BMI British Midland' and notably insisted that the final 'I' did not stand for anything.
But the airline - which has become a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] subsidiary - appears to have climbed down from that position on recent publicity material. It has also started referring to itself as 'British Midland International' in formal statements.
"Our marketing branding people were looking for something to reinforce the brand in overseas markets," says a spokesman for the UK carrier. "They were finding that BMI didn't mean an awful lot, particularly in the former BMed markets."

BMed was the former British Mediterranean Airways, the franchise which served Middle Eastern and Central Asian destinations for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] before being acquired by BMI in 2007.

Lufthansa Wants To Sell BMI

Lufthansa is officially putting its loss-making subsidiary BMI on the market.

The company has formally started a sales process for BMI, and executive board member Stefan Lauer says in addition to an outright sale a partnership “could be a viable option.” In parallel, Lufthansa continues in its efforts to reduce losses at the unit.

BMI has been particularly hard hit by the political unrest in North Africa. The airline launched its first flight from London to Libyan capital Tripoli on the day the violence started and immediately withdrew from the route. The airline made a €120 million ($171.4 million) operating loss on €396 million in sales in the first half of 2011.

Lauer says Lufthansa has already received serious expressions of interest, but he declines to identify the potential buyers. International Airlines Group (IAG) unit British Airways has made clear in the past that it would be interested in taking over the airline, but regulatory hurdles and anti-competition aspects are a concern. Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson also brought up the idea of merging Virgin Atlantic with BMI to be able to create a London-Heathrow based hub.

Lufthansa was forced to take full control of the airline in 2009 as a result of a 1999 agreement with then-owner Sir Michael Bishop.

Jeannot a écrit:Lufthansa veut vendre BMI

Lufthansa Wants To Sell BMI

Lufthansa is officially putting its loss-making subsidiary BMI on the market.

The company has formally started a sales process for BMI, and executive board member Stefan Lauer says in addition to an outright sale a partnership “could be a viable option.” In parallel, Lufthansa continues in its efforts to reduce losses at the unit.

BMI has been particularly hard hit by the political unrest in North Africa. The airline launched its first flight from London to Libyan capital Tripoli on the day the violence started and immediately withdrew from the route. The airline made a €120 million ($171.4 million) operating loss on €396 million in sales in the first half of 2011.

Lauer says Lufthansa has already received serious expressions of interest, but he declines to identify the potential buyers. International Airlines Group (IAG) unit British Airways has made clear in the past that it would be interested in taking over the airline, but regulatory hurdles and anti-competition aspects are a concern. Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson also brought up the idea of merging Virgin Atlantic with BMI to be able to create a London-Heathrow based hub.

Lufthansa was forced to take full control of the airline in 2009 as a result of a 1999 agreement with then-owner Sir Michael Bishop.

Lufthansa (LH) Group is considering selling subsidiary British Midland (bmi), LH executive board member and Group Airline chief officer Stefan Lauer told ATW in Vienna Monday ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]). Lauer said LH’s options include either selling the loss-making airline or creating a new partnership.

Bmi reported a €63 million ($91 million) first-quarter operating loss, which followed a €145 million operating loss in 2010, owing to the crises in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as the weak UK market.

Despite the losses, Lauer said he didn’t think it was a mistake to buy bmi. “The aviation scenario today has changed dramatically compared to 10 years ago,” he said, noting that LH wants to find a solution quickly.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] has struck a deal to buy sought-after take-off and landing slots at London’s Heathrow airport from BMI, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]’s loss-making UK subsidiary.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], BA’s parent company, said on Friday it had authorised the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which each consist of daily take-off and landing rights.

IAG, which also owns Spain’s [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], is [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] if Lufthansa decides to sell or break up its UK subsidiary.

BA has its home at Heathrow, but cannot expand its services there without additional slots because the airport is already operating at full capacity and the government has rejected the case for building a third runway.

“BA is always looking to increase its slots portfolio because there is no spare capacity,” said an IAG spokesman.

Lufthansa said the slots sold to BA were not needed by BMI for its operations at Heathrow. The transaction should be seen as separate to Lufthansa’s [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which could lead to the disposal of the UK subsidiary, said people familiar with the situation.

IAG said its share of slots at Heathrow, consisting of take-off and landing rights held by BA and Iberia, would increase from 44 per cent to 45 per cent following the transaction with BMI. IAG added it would not need regulatory approval for the transaction. .....................................

A strategic pawn has been placed in the middle of the Heathrow airport power struggle by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], as it investigates the possibility of selling British Midland International.

By appointing investment bank Morgan Stanley to look into the potential sale of the loss-making subsidiary, the German carrier is finally addressing a long-standing problem. Meanwhile, other airlines will consider the prudence of a takeover move.

On offer is the second-largest number of slots at Heathrow - an invaluable commodity at one of the world's busiest international airports which is bursting at the seams.

Airport Coordination Limited reported BMI's share of Heathrow's slots as being roughly 8.4% of the total capacity, in its Heathrow summer 2011 start of season report.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] parent International Airlines Group has been open about his interest in BMI, telling Airline Business earlier this year: "It's no secret that we've been interested in BMI, but largely because of its slot ­position at Heathrow, rather than the brand."

Andrew Lobbenberg, European airline research analyst at RBS, feels that a purchase of BMI by IAG would be the most natural fit. With British Airways owning approximately 40% of the Heathrow slots, such a move would give it control of around half the airport's total.

He is less convinced by the viability of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Airways' assertion that it continues "to have a close interest in a combination with BMI".

He explains that it is not obvious how a combination of BMI and Virgin could be a successful or profitable enough business to compete against BA.

Lobbenberg also questions whether Virgin could indeed afford such a purchase.

Citi Investment Research's (CIR) break-up analysis values BMI's equity at £106-248 million ($168-392 million). "Though, if it could find a new backer with deep pockets and the appetite, of course its ability to buy BMI could be transformed," he adds.

Lobbenberg says he is "very unsure about what the industrial logic would be of any combination of BMI with a Gulf carrier".

CIR questions whether any buyer would be interested in purchasing BMI in its entirety, because the carrier's three distinct divisions - BMI, BMI Regional and BMIbaby - do not match with most other airline groups, and that Lufthansa must therefore consider each separately.

The final intriguing development of the saga is that the news came at the same time as the announcement that Lufthansa's Stefan Lauer, chief officer of Lufthansa's subsidiary airlines, will be stepping down from the role of chairman of BMI.

In his place, BMI appointed Vagn Ove Sørensen, the former deputy chief executive of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Virgin Atlantic Airways refuses to rule out a possible bid for British Midland International, should Lufthansa decide to sell its loss-making subsidiary.

In September, Lufthansa announced it had appointed global financial services company Morgan Stanley to look into a potential sale of BMI.

Edmond Rose, director commercial and revenue planning at Virgin Atlantic, told Flightglobal's Airline Business Daily at the World Route Development Forum in Berlin that the carrier has "a close interest in the future of BMI", a phrase he repeated when pressed on whether this could extend to a potential bid.

International Airlines Group, the parent company of Virgin's arch rival British Airways, has also reiterated its interest in BMI.

IAG has made no secret of its desire to obtain BMI's more than 10% share of London Heathrow's highly sought-after slots.

Virgin Atlantic is still keen on buying smaller UK rival bmi despite waning growth across the aviation industry, Virgin Atlantic's chief executive Steve Ridgway said.

"The bmi sale process is ongoing and we're still involved in that," Ridgway said on Tuesday.

Lufthansa, which owns bmi, has said that it is considering finding a partner for loss-making bmi, and has mandated bankers to sound out a potential sale.

Airlines are keen to get hold of bmi's coveted takeoff and landing slots at London's Heathrow airport.

Bmi controls about 10 percent of the take-off and landing slots at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, making it second there only to IAG-owned British Airways, which now has around 45 percent of the slots.

Last month BA acquired six daily takeoff and landing slots at London's Heathrow airport from bmi for an undisclosed sum.

"Bmi is an important UK asset and I think it needs to be dealt with wisely," said Ridgway, when asked if Virgin would look at acquiring bmi's slots instead of the airline itself.

Virgin Atlantic, majority-owned by billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group, swung to a full-year profit in the year to March but expects higher fuel prices, weakening consumer confidence and tough economic conditions to impact the business in its current fiscal year.

"Growth rates are low and it's very challenging for airlines at the moment and will probably continue to be like that in the months ahead," said Ridgway.

Industry body IATA last month said it expected airlines to suffer a weak end to the year due to waning consumer confidence, sluggish international trade and high fuel prices.

It said a weak global economy would prompt a sharp fall in airline profits in 2012 and cut the industry's profit margins to 0.8 percent from 1.2 percent this year. IATA forecasts industry profits in 2012 will fall 29 percent to USD$4.9 billion from USD$6.9 billion this year.

Ridgway also poured cold water on a plan to link London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports by high-speed train.

The British government last week said it was considering connecting the airports -- creating a virtual hub dubbed Heathwick -- to increase capacity in the London aviation market

"Building this link between airports is not really practical especially given the constraints placed on runway capacity in the UK," he said.

(Reuters)

Owner Tables Offer For BMI

The parent company of British Airways has tabled a proposal to buy BMI, its struggling rival, from the German aviation group Lufthansa, Sky News has learned.

Discussions between the two sides are understood to be at an early stage and could involve a full takeover of the airline or a deal to acquire some of its assets, including its prized take-off and landing slots at London’s Heathrow airport.

The news that International Airlines Group (IAG) has opened talks about a takeover of BMI is likely to spark fierce opposition from BA's rivals over the dominant position it would assume at Heathrow.

Acquiring BMI would give IAG more than half of all take-off and landing slots at the airport and strengthen BA’s grip on one of the world’s most important transport hubs.

That said, Lufthansa has 66% of the slots at Frankfurt's main airport, while Air France-KLM has 59% at Charles de Gaulle in Paris and 57% at Schiphol in Amsterdam.

Willie Walsh, IAG's chief executive, has made no secret of his desire to acquire BMI in the past.

BMI was effectively put up for sale by Lufthansa last month after the German carrier appointed Morgan Stanley to evaluate options for ditching the loss-making airline.

Mr Walsh is facing competition to buy BMI from Virgin Atlantic, Sir Richard Branson’s flagship company, which is desperate to buy the firm in order to bulk up its operations at Heathrow and become the airport’s second-largest airline customer.

BMI's value is largely contained in the slots, but has become a financial disaster zone for Lufthansa after it emerged that it lost £38 per passenger in the first half of the financial year.

Last month, IAG bought six pairs of slots from BMI.

IAG has asked Barclays Capital, the investment bank, to help it structure a potential takeover of BMI.

Two key questions facing Walsh will relate to how he deals with competition risk (given that IAG would hold about 55% of Heathrow’s slots after any takeover), and what happens to BMI's pension liabilities, which are understood to total more than £100m.

Another interesting dimension will be what a takeover of BMI means for the world's airline alliances, the key groupings which allow carriers to co-ordinate flights.

BMI and Lufthansa are part of the Star Alliance, while BA and its merger partner Iberia belong to OneWorld.

Other members of Star Alliance may therefore not be pleased to see valuable slots at Heathrow sold to a OneWorld partner.

Virgin Atlantic is not yet part of an alliance but has been holding talks with potential partners about either joining one of them (apart from OneWorld) or selling a stake in itself to another carrier. Discussions with Delta Airlines are understood to have stalled, although Branson is understood to remain hopeful of a deal.

It is conceivable that any takeover of BMI will inflict further political pain on the Government, since job losses would be likely to result from a deal with either IAG or Virgin Atlantic.

BMI is not the only takeover deal on Walsh's radar. IAG has plenty of financial firepower and has also been sizing up an offer for TAP, the Portuguese airline.

IAG declined to comment.

British Airways parent International Airlines Group is holding early-stage talks with Lufthansa over bmi, the loss-making unit of the German airline, two people familiar with the situation said.

"IAG has not been shy about its interest in bmi, and the two sides have been in contact, discussing options, but I'm not sure it has got to the offer stage yet," said one of the sources on Friday.

Another source said Lufthansa was also in talks with other suitors, but did not give any names.

Virgin Atlantic is one of those involved in the bmi sale process, chief executive Steve Ridgway said on Tuesday.

Lufthansa has said finding a partner for bmi is one of the options it is exploring as it tries to turn around the airline, and has mandated bankers to sound out a potential sale.

Bmi's biggest assets are its slots at London Heathrow. Citigroup analyst Andrew Light last month estimated these to be worth around EUR€460 million (USD$630 million).

IAG boss Willie Walsh has made no secret of his interest in bmi, and BA last month acquired six daily take-off and landing slots at London's Heathrow airport from bmi for an undisclosed sum.

The sources said it was unclear whether the talks between IAG and Lufthansa would be successful.

"Virgin Atlantic could yet throw a spanner in the works," one of the people said.

Lufthansa and IAG declined to comment.

(Reuters)

Oui ! Le "no comment" ! Normal ; le silence est d'or ! Laissons le bla-bla aux media !

UK-based investors are near to an agreement to acquire UK carrier BMI Regional, a division of the mainline airline owned by Lufthansa Group.

If a deal is closed it would mark the first move in the break-up of BMI which has burdened Lufthansa since it took over the loss-making operation in 2009.

BMI Regional operates a fleet of Embraer jets and is based in the Scottish city of Aberdeen.

The mainline carrier said it "envisaged" that a transaction document for the sale "will be signed shortly" with a view to completing the divestment by the end of the year.

It said the sale would be in the form of shares of BMI Regional, the airline's fleet and route network, and the continued employment of personnel.

While the proposed buyer has not been identified, BMI said it was an investor group "previously associated with the regional business" and that discussions were "advanced".

BMI Regional would continue to fly, for a period, under its current brand and IATA designator code and the current winter 2011-12 schedule "will continue as planned" with "no major network changes" expected for summer 2012.

"The intended sale of BMI Regional is part of the strategic review of BMI," said BMI chief Wolfgang Prock-Schauer.

"It is our goal to find sustainable solutions for all parts of the BMI business and we, as well as the shareholder, continue to assess options."

No financial details have been disclosed. BMI said the potential investor is "keen to consult with staff" and that this would begin soon, in order to complete the transaction as soon as possible.

"The new owner plans to continue the airline as an independent entity based in Aberdeen and to further develop the regional network in both the UK and Europe," it added.

"Employment prospects will be enhanced through a planned growth strategy."

Lufthansa is set to enter exclusive talks to sell loss-making carrier bmi by the end of the month, with arch rival IAG, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, seen as the front-runner, sources said on Tuesday.

"The price won't be substantial, it's mainly about cleaning Lufthansa's balance sheet and getting rid of the debt," one source close to the sales process said.

Bmi has been a millstone around Lufthansa's neck and by putting it up for sale, the company has admitted efforts have stalled to turn around the unit, which reported losses of EUR€154 million (USD$214.8 million) for the first nine months of 2011.

Lufthansa finance chief Stephan Gemkow said at the group's third-quarter results last week talks were going on with several interested parties and that a binding deal could be reached this year.

The source added there were a handful of bidders, including IAG and Virgin Atlantic.

While Lufthansa is seeking to sell bmi as a whole, another source close to the deal said the most likely outcome would be Lufthansa selling bmi's coveted slots at Heathrow, Europe's largest airport, to IAG.

IAG would then pass on some of those slots to Virgin to relieve competition concerns.

"Lufthansa will likely sell bmi's slots for about GBP£300 million max and its stake in (air traffic manager) NATS and fetch about GBP£400 million in total, so just enough to recover from the losses accumulated since the bmi acquisition," the person said.

With the Heathrow slots sold, smaller players such as Flybe or Eastern could then look to pick up bmi regional.

While some have queried whether Lufthansa would sell bmi to arch rival British Airways, thus strengthening the latter's position at London's Heathrow, one of the sources close to the deal said Lufthansa's desire to be rid of bmi would come first.

"Lufthansa is losing patience and could finally surrender to selling to IAG. They really tried hard to avoid giving them such a strong presence at Heathrow."

One airline industry specialist, who did not want to be named, said Lufthansa would also be keen to avoid bmi falling into the clutches of Gulf airline Etihad, which sources say is teaming up with Virgin for a bid.

"Lufthansa is doing everything in its power to keep the fast growing Gulf airlines at bay - why should they allow a main competitor to gain a foothold on Europe's busiest airport in Heathrow," he said.

(Reuters)

Lufthansa is reportedly finalising the sale of British Midland International (BMI) to British Airways parent International Airlines Group (IAG).

Quoting unnamed sources close to the negotiations, a number of media reported today that the German carrier has finally decided to sell its UK subsidiary to the Anglo-Spanish airline consortium.

Lufthansa had negotiated with a number of bidders over the past weeks, including Virgin Atlantic Airways.

A potential deal with IAG could be announced as early as tomorrow when the group presents its financial results for the first nine months of 2011.

With the acquisition, IAG would command 60-70% of the slots at London Heathrow. With around 8.5% of slots, BMI is the second largest slot holder at the hub after BA.

Given that Heathrow's capacity has been virtually exhausted, Virgin said it is "very concerned about the competition ramifications of an IAG purchase of BMI".

Lufthansa and BA declined to comment on the status of their negotiations.

After International Airlines Group (IAG) announced today that it had agreed in principle with Lufthansa to take over British Midland International (BMI), there is confusion as Virgin Atlantic Airways appears to be still making a rival bid for the UK carrier.

Virgin said in statement today that "we are working with Lufthansa on the next stage of the purchase".

Virgin added that "we remain committed to the acquisition of BMI".

IAG said earlier today that it expected to ink a binding purchase agreement with Lufthansa "in the coming weeks" and that the transaction would be completed "in the first quarter 2012".

Given London Heathrow's exhausted capacity and dependency on the existing slots, Virgin argues that a BMI takeover through British Airways parent IAG would have an adverse effect on competition at the UK hub.

"British Airways' hold over Heathrow is already too dominant and we are very concerned - as the competition authorities should also be - that BA's purchase of BMI would be disastrous for consumer choice and competition," said Virgin.

Virgin Atlantic Airways is adamant that it is still in the race to take over UK carrier BMI after making another offer, which Lufthansa wants to discuss next week.

A source close to the negotiations told Flightglobal that Lufthansa responded on Virgin's latest bid within the last 12 hours and wants to talk about it in the coming week.

This would suggest that the previous offer by the UK airline might have been too low, but a spokeswoman for Virgin dismissed the notion.

British Airways parent International Airlines Group had reached a tentative agreement to acquire BMI.

Virgin, which has frequently touted the potential for a tie-up with BMI, insisted there were significant competition concerns with the IAG bid. The spokeswoman said Virgin was still in serious bidding talks with Lufthansa.

Lufthansa could not immediately be reached for comment about the possible discussion.