Lufthansa plans to sell BMI

[OO-ITR]

Is it official? IAG will take over BMI...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-0 ... -unit.html

[dna]

Is it official?

Indeed it is.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15588645

[OO-ITR]

and :
http://presse.lufthansa.com/en/news-rel ... /2025.html

[fretn]

What about the BD regional jets that SN uses?

[OO-ITR]

What about the BD regional jets that SN uses?

I understand that BMI regional will be sold seperatly to a group of Scottish investor. But that doens't answer your question concerning the wet leases for SN. I don't know what will happen...
It all depends who this group of investors is and what their plan is with BMI regional's fleet.

[RoMax]

What about the BD regional jets that SN uses?

BMI Regional is going to be sold seperatly as mentionned before in this topic. If everything goes according to plan IAG will buy BMI (mainline), so basicly the LHR operations and unkown British investors are probably going to buy BMI Regional. They said the winter 2011/2012 season will go as planned and there will be limited changes in summer 2012. What will happen after that is a big question (including what will happen to the routes operated for SN and the other routes to BRU in codeshare with SN).

Edit: OO-ITR beated me in speed.

[DeltaWiskey]

What about the BD regional jets that SN uses?

Apart from what already has been told, a lot depends on the contract. But as long as BMI Regional and SN are satisfied about the current lease, I don't see any abrupt termination of the operations.

[sn26567]

Official LH press release: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46067

[Air Key West]

I'm curious to see what British and EU anti-trust/competition authorities will say. However, since they have already OKed the BA/IB merger and the AA/BA/IB transatlantic commercial agreement, they will probably give this deal the green light, too. If they don't, LH will be in a much weaker position to negotiate a new deal with another take over candidate. Let's wait and see. Do you think the money of this sale would be used by LH to buy the remaining 55 % of b.air ?

[cnc]

Do you think the money of this sale would be used by LH to buy the remaining 55 % of b.air ?

no, my bet is on TAP
if you look close at the current SN-LH situation you can only conclude SN doesn't add much extra value to the group (not even the africa network). LH secured BRU from becoming a BA/oneworld or AF/skyteam hub.
maybe the intentions to save SN are still there and if not, the 60M they paid sure gives them a lot of time to build their own africa network at FRA without facing BA or AF competion out of BRU

[DeltaWiskey]

I'm curious to see what British and EU anti-trust/competition authorities will say. However, since they have already OKed the BA/IB merger and the AA/BA/IB transatlantic commercial agreement, they will probably give this deal the green light, too.

Market share of LH, KL, AF,... are all bigger at their main hubs than BA-BMI together at LHR, so I don't think this will be a problem.

I'm glad SN didn't end up in SkyTeam, what would have their future looked like between CDG and AMS, nothing good.

I still think LH is going to buy SN in 2012, the potential is there, but they need some money to invest. LH has a lot of wisdom they can bring into SN, but it wouldn't be wise to do so before they fully buy SN, then LH has to pay more...

[Flanker]

Air Key West wrote:
Do you think the money of this sale would be used by LH to buy the remaining 55 % of b.air ?

no, my bet is on TAP
if you look close at the current SN-LH situation you can only conclude SN doesn't add much extra value to the group (not even the africa network). LH secured BRU from becoming a BA/oneworld or AF/skyteam hub.
maybe the intentions to save SN are still there and if not, the 60M they paid sure gives them a lot of time to build their own africa network at FRA without facing BA or AF competion out of BRU

Very good analysis.

60M and the promise of Star A membership would have been too cheap to say no, because on top of the incentives that CNC illustrated very well, they were able to force some investments on SN that generated benefits for LH and have already got them some of that money back (as previously shared by a source here) and they're milking even more everyday with the C-checks on the 330's in LHT Malta:
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... ce-363569/
Plus the 60M came under the form of an injection, which means that they also became 45% owners of that additional 60M in SN's balance sheet, so the loss was limited to 30M.

A sweet deal, too good to refuse IMO.

I also give TP more chances to be integrated into LH as a stand-alone airline than SN.

[tolipanebas]

Plus the 60M came under the form of an injection, which means that they also became 45% owners of that additional 60M in SN's balance sheet, so the loss was limited to 30M.

Some important corrections:

LH paid 65M euro for a 45% share in Brussels Airlines, not 60M...

Of that 65M, 40M was redistributed amongst the shareholders of SN Airholding right away as a one-off dividend, with the remaining 25M going to the airline, so LH 'own' 45% of 25M, meaning merely 11M, iso the 30M you think they have... about 3 times less!

Other than that, good luck with trying to look into the future of the LH/SN partnership: I would certainly love to know where it is leading us to just as much as everybody else, yet I most certainly wouldn't base any predictions on the financial picture as you've painted it on this site today, as the pictures are very blurred, to say the least!

[sn26567]

I'm glad SN didn't end up in SkyTeam, what would have their future looked like between CDG and AMS, nothing good.

This has never been an option. In an interview published in La Libre Belgique today, Davignon said that precisely because SkyTeam had already hubs in CDG and AMS he never would have asked AF to take over SN: it would have been a sentence to death.

That left him with a choice between BA and LH. BA at that time had its hands full with the merger with IB and didn't want to engage simultaneously into another take-over. LH only was left, and you know the rest of the story...

[Flanker]

Of that 65M, 40M was redistributed amongst the shareholders of SN Airholding right away as a one-off dividend, with the remaining 25M going to the airline, so LH 'own' 45% of 25M, meaning merely 11M, iso the 30M you think they have... about 3 times less!

Other than that, good luck with trying to look into the future of the LH/SN partnership: I would certainly love to know where it is leading us to just as much as everybody else, yet I most certainly wouldn't base any predictions on the financial picture as you've painted it on this site today, as the pictures are very blurred, to say the least!

Interesting, I didn't know that about the dividend.
Good to know that the other shareholders did get something back from their investment.

As to the picture I'm painting, I'm keeping it blurred enough for one audience, but at the same time clear enough for the other audience, who's starting to play games that I've seen played before.

[Charlie Roy]

British Airways buying BMI will prove very interesting for Aer Lingus.

Currently Aer Lingus (one of the biggest slot owners at Heathrow) codeshare with British Airways on their services between Heathrow and Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Shannon. BMI now compete with Aer Lingus on Heathrow to Dublin and Belfast. When British Airways takes BMI over, possibly the Aer Lingus codeshares will stop.
Aer Lingus, which is currently up for sale, could then potentially decrease capacity between Ireland and Heathrow (freeing up slots there for a future Alliance partner), and increase capacity to a new partner's hub in Amsterdam or Paris or Frankfurt or Munich for example... Exciting times ahead.

[sn26567]

Lufthansa to operate Cologne – London Heathrow Route in Summer 2012, replacing bmi service

As per 07NOV11 GDS timetable display, Lufthansa from 25MAR12 is operating its own aircraft on 3 Daily Cologne – London Heathrow service, replacing bmi aircraft.

Boeing 737-500 aircraft operates this route in Summer 2012 season.

Schedule:

Code: Select all

LH3410 CGN0740 – 0805LHR 735 D
LH3412 CGN1400 – 1425LHR 735 D
LH3414 CGN1805 – 1830LHR 735 D
 
LH3411 LHR0845 – 1105CGN 735 D
LH3413 LHR1505 – 1725CGN 735 D
LH3415 LHR1910 – 2130CGN 735 D

Source: Airline Route

[euroflyer]

Lufthansa to operate Cologne – London Heathrow Route in Summer 2012, replacing bmi service

As per 07NOV11 GDS timetable display, Lufthansa from 25MAR12 is operating its own aircraft on 3 Daily Cologne – London Heathrow service, replacing bmi aircraft.

Boeing 737-500 aircraft operates this route in Summer 2012 season.

Schedule:

Code: Select all

LH3410 CGN0740 – 0805LHR 735 D
LH3412 CGN1400 – 1425LHR 735 D
LH3414 CGN1805 – 1830LHR 735 D
 
LH3411 LHR0845 – 1105CGN 735 D
LH3413 LHR1505 – 1725CGN 735 D
LH3415 LHR1910 – 2130CGN 735 D

Source: Airline Route

so this is a real indication that the sale process is about to be finalised I guess; meaning we will see the same move for a number of other routes? As far as I can remember bmi is flying a number of services between the UK and Belgium, Switzerland and Germany on behalf of the LH group airlines? And the quite massive number of LH codeshares on bmi flights from LHR will come to an end than as well? And what about the new check-in areas bmi has just opened for itself and LH in LHR Terminal 1? bmi, if the brand will survive at all, will probably move to T5 in LHR and join BA there? Interesting times ahead ...

[sn26567]

SWISS replaces bmi on Basel – Manchester route

Since the launch of Winter 2011 season, SWISS has tookover bmi’s Basel – Manchester service, operating 6 times a week with Avro RJ100 aircraft. bmi codeshares on this route. (Source: Airline Route)

Another sign that Lufthansa wants to keep as many bmi routes as possible within its group after the sale of bmi.

[tolipanebas]

SWISS replaces bmi on Basel – Manchester route

Since the launch of Winter 2011 season, SWISS has tookover bmi’s Basel – Manchester service, operating 6 times a week with Avro RJ100 aircraft. bmi codeshares on this route. (Source: Airline Route)

Another sign that Lufthansa wants to keep as many bmi routes as possible within its group after the sale of bmi.

Will be interesting to see what happens to the 4 slotpairs at LHR SN currently leases from BD too, BTW.

Will LH strip BD off these 4 slots too and hand them to SN, or will SN have to move airport again?
(back to LGW?)