Virgin Atlantic said, just this past week, that it was in discussions with Lufthansa about BMI. They did not want this airline to fall into the hands of IAG. BMI would pose a big problem for the airline if it fell into the wrong hands.

Now some may be wondering, who cares which airline grabs up BMI? All reports clearly show that BMI is not profitable. However, the truth of the matter is that BMI has a lot of lucrative assets in the form of flight slots at London’s Heathrow airport. These are slots that a number of airlines would not mind having at their disposal. Thus, it could actually be a great move by Virgin Atlantic to buy BMI just to keep IAG from getting the rest of them.

British Airways currently controls about 44 percent of the slots at Heathrow. Not only that, but 1 percent of the slots are controlled by its sister airline Iberia. Thus, IAG is the dominant airline group at the airport with 45 percent of all slots. It would not be good for other carriers if IAG could get all of BMI’s slots as well.

Virgin Atlantic went on to say in a report that they are very concerned about the competition ramifications of an IAG purchase of BMI. British Airways already has a very strong position at London Heathrow. If they are to buy BMI, things could get worse.

This new data actually shows that 78.8 percent of BMI’s flights depart on time. This is a pretty amazing percentage considering how many flights their airline handles everyday. Due to this high percentage, BMI is actually ahead of, not only domestic competitors, but international ones as well.

The chief executive officer for BMI, Wolfgang Prock Schauer, said that the punctuality statistics speak for themselves about the airline. BMI has proved its excellence and its ability to handle things like weather conditions, which tend to slow other airlines down.

He went on to say that efficiency and service quality are the building blocks for BMI. They strive to provide people with the best possible service and products. It does not matter if people are traveling for business or pleasure, BMI will do everything in their power to help them get to their destination on time.

Of course, not all airlines did so good on this report. In fact, one airline, Jet2, actually came in dead last in terms of punctuality. A spokesperson for Jet2 said that, in terms of pure punctuality, Jet2 did have more delayed flights than usual during 2010. Most of this was due to volcanic ash clouds and severe weather. Overall, this was very disappointing for the company as they continue to try and meet their customers’ high expectations.

This carrier, which is Heathrow’s second largest operator, has blamed increased landing fees for the cutbacks. They said that these increased landing fees make it uneconomical to run shorter flights from this airport. It will use slots created by the domestic cutback for more lucrative international routes instead.

On top of this, Manchester flights are expected to be cut back from six daily to four. However, airport operators insists that the charges are not to blame. They said that the domestic routes have been in doubt ever since a third runway was ruled out by the coalition government. This has limited further growth of the airport. Of course, green campaigners say they are fine with this news. They said that domestic flights are not even necessary anymore because of the era of the high-speed rail. It is cheaper and better for the environment. Overall, they welcome this news.

BMI’s Glasgow route, which loses millions every year, could also be under review. There is no point for an airline to run a route that no one is going to use. BMI’s Austrian CEO, Wolfgang Prock Schauer, said just last year that cuts on some domestic routes will be on the way. He said that airport operators are unfairly penalizing domestic passengers at Heathrow airport. He added that BMI was outraged over this increase.

BMI will also be operating an additional service from Lufthansa between Heathrow and Hamburg. This will allow Lufthansa to operate four times a day on this important route. This new route, with a departure time of 7:15am is, of course, aimed more towards the business market. BMI will also operate all three daily flights on behalf of Lufthansa between Heathrow and Berlin Tegal. There will be a fourth daily service aimed at business travelers as well.

All of the flights will be operated by A319’s, and BMI will be proving a business class cabin. This is a smart move since a lot of the routes are aimed at business passengers anyway. The British airline will adopt Lufthansa’s policy of not selling the middle seat of three to give a 2-2 business class

BMI is already currently operating a number of other routes to and from Heathrow on behalf of other Lufthansa group carriers. The British carrier will soon operate between Heathrow and Vienna, alongside Austrian Airlines. Other BMI services for the Lufthansa group include a shared flight schedule with Swiss International and Lufthansa Italia out of Heathrow to Geneva and Milan Malpensa respectively.

It is not yet known what other routes, if any, BMI will operate for Lufthansa after this. Right now there are still a number of other routes that could be passed on to the airline. However, Lufthansa says that all of the switches are to better serve their customers.

The airline, formerly known as British Midland Airways, said the job cuts would come from all areas of the business.

The Castle Donington based airline said that number of full-time equivalent jobs at risk of redundancy is predicted to be about 600, but further job cuts cannot be ruled out.

The airline also announced that it would be suspending loss-making routes, and reducing the number of aircraft in its international operations from 39 to 30.

Routes to suffer the axe include Heathrow to Brussels, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo, which will be suspended in January, and the service from Heathrow to Amsterdam being suspended at the end of the current winter schedule in March.

Seasonal services from Heathrow to Palma and Venice would not continue in summer 2010.

The announcement from Bmi, which was taken over by Lufthansa earlier this year, comes after the low-cost offshoot bmibaby announced it was cutting 158 jobs.

Bmi has said that restructuring its international and regional operations against a background where the airline industry is facing the challenges of a downturn in demand and the worst recession in the UK since records began.

The airline’s management has said that consultations with unions and staff representatives has already commenced with a view of minimising the number of compulsory job losses wherever possible.

The airline employs a total of 4,470 staff.

bmi, which is the UK’s second largest carrier, is going to be dropping flights to Tel Aviv, Aleppo, Amsterdam, Kiev, and Brussels as of January 9^th. The airline said that, instead, it will be concentrating on routes that serve oil, energy and, of course, emerging markets. The airline noted that its overall new restructuring plan has it focusing on business class customers and those who are visiting friends and family.

This new move has been forced by bmi’s new owner, Lufthansa. Right now it is Lufthansa’s goal to get this struggling airline back to profitability. However, this is a task that is proving to be quite hard in the current market conditions.

However, bmi has pledged to maintain its current UK and Ireland network. The managing director at bmi, Dominic Paul, said that they sincerely apologize for any kind of inconvenience that these route suspensions have caused. He did take that time to thank all of the people who have supported the routes over the years. He noted that booking agents would have until December 1^st to file for re-protection.

Dominic Paul went on to say that the agents who have re-protection options will be contacted from December 2^nd. Everything from there will be handled between the airline and the agents.

Many reports have claimed that, due to the combination of the economic downturn, problems with Heathrow Terminal 5 and fuel costs, the airline has been struggling to stay alive. However, Bmi says that this is not the case at all. In a statement released by the airline, they clearly state that the company will be able to meet all of its financial obligations. The airline also said that, with the current level of commitment shown by Lufthansa and with an advanced business initiative in place, the directors have a reasonable expectation that the company has more than enough resources to continue on strong.

Auditors have already warned that the airline needed an extra £190 million in funding by October 2010 to keep running. The managers of the airline said a loan from its parent company Lufthansa and the sale of landing slots at Heathrow Airport would be more than enough to meet the financial commitments that it needs.

As of right now, Bmi operates just over 30 aircrafts and owns 11 percent of the landing slots at Heathrow. The airline is doing its best to restructure and cut costs. Just last week the low cost part of Bmi, bmibaby, said that it was axing 158 jobs and reducing its number of aircrafts from 17 to 12.

Right now both carriers have urged the government to oppose plans for a 13.1 percent rise in the amount of compensation that will be given to passengers whose bags are lost by the airline. The plans for the increase were drawn up by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization. Under these plans, the amount passengers are allowed to claim would actually increase from £972.46 to £1,099.85 next year. This is something that many airlines do not want to have to deal with.

British Airways, which at one point was actually losing some 13 cases on every Boeing 747 flight, said that the economic crisis meant the proposed increase was inappropriate. They believe that the current economic situation is a very valid reason to postpone any kind of increase until a feature date.

The Air Transport Users Council, the passenger watchdog, has of course, backed this proposal from the start. It went on to point out that the increase goes right along with inflation. The Department of Transpiration said that it will be backing the proposed increase.

Overall, this increase comes at a bad time for all airlines, but this goes double for British Airways. Right now this is an airline that has more on its plate than it knows what to do with. The airline is currently focusing on avoiding a strike, which could be taking place this Christmas holiday.

This great new move comes just days after Continental Airlines became a member of Star Alliance. Overall, the new deal will mean that Bmi can sell tickets to both George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport from Heathrow, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brussels, and Manchester.

Continental Airlines will also be able to sell tickets on Bmi services connecting through the same set of UK destinations. However, it will be able to use Blefast and Amman as well. Of course, both airlines have already announced that they plan on adding additional codeshare destinations throughout the rest of the year.

The marketing director for Bmi, Katherine Gershon, said that their new codeshare agreement with Continental Airlines means that their customers will have the great opportunity of traveling on new services between key departure points and the United States. She went on to say that the carrier hopes to collaborate with Continental on more destinations in the near feature.

Jim Compton, the executive vice president of marketing for Continental Airlines, said that they are very delighted to have signed this new deal with bmi, there new Star Alliance partner. He pointed out that this allows the company to offer its customers an even greater range of travel options. Continental Airlines hopes of being able to work with Bmi again on similar agreements.

The German carry will also have to pay an additional undisclosed amount to SAS Airlines should Lufthansa choose to sell BMI within the next two years. Right now there are already 12 parties that are interested in BMI. The chief executive of British Airways, Willie Walsh, said that he is interested in the airline, but no kind of formal talks have been held.

Flybe has already emerged as a potential runner in the race for BMI. Some have been led to believe that Flybe may make a joint bid with British Airways; however, all talks have been denied. Experts have pointed out that British Airways may not be able to be a sole bidder for BMI due to its dominate share at Heathrow. A duel bid between British Airways and Flybe would actually sidestep the competition watchdogs.

Lufthansa said back in June that BMI was faced with growing financial challenges due to fuel prices and a big fall in demand. This was all due to the economic crisis. In fact, this month the International Air Transport Association expects the world’s airlines to lose about $11 billion this year. This shows that the problems were not just limited to BMI, but many airlines were faced with problems.