Flybmi in administration

[Ibbie]

Flybmi has filed for administration today

https://www.itv.com/news/2019-02-16/bri ... -collapse/

Airbus shuttles are to be operated by Titan until a new operator is found,

[Slasher]

Was that once called BMI Baby?

[Ibbie]

No, it was bmi regional. BMI Baby is long gone.

[Capetonian]

This is another Bob (blamed on Brexit.). So of course nothing to do with the fact that they had extremely low load factors.

I wasn't aware that Brexit had happened.

[Undried Plum]

I remember Stephen Bond from the mid-1970s when was transferring his Bolkows from ManAv to North Scottish on the Oxy contract around the same time that the BEAS 212s turned into raspberry ripples. He was a wheeler dealer then and I thought was an OK guy.

Now I think he's a compete shithouse.

He's protected himself and his family by putting the aircraft into separate companies and nominally leasing them to BMI. The first thing he did when the "unexpected" shutdown was announced was to fly them out of Europe and back to Blighty, empty, so that they couldn't be poggled by creditors in Europe.

Right up until the trap was sprung he was still taking money from suckers buying tickets which he knew damned well would never be honoured. Bastard!

The law really needs to be changed to protect the travelling public from shysters like that who exploit loopholes in the law. The CAA is a broken reed. They simply tell the suckers to try claiming the ticket price back from their credit card company.

[4mastacker]

.....................Right up until the trap was sprung he was still taking money from suckers buying tickets which he knew damned well would never be honoured. Bastard!.....................

Isn't that classed as trading whilst insolvent.......or just plain theft?

Happened to a company I worked for. They were ordering stuff, selling it on but had no intention of paying the original supplier. When they went bust, forensic accountants were brought in and I believe at least two directors had their collars felt.

[Undried Plum]

The sudden collapse is being blamed on fuel price spikes and Brexit. Neither explanation makes much sense.

All airlines buy fuel. Most hedge against fuel price spikes as a normal business practice. Why didn't BMI? Does Loganair also not hedge their fuel purchase plan by buying on the futures market?

Last week a Romanian loco suddenly cancelled its Liverpool flights. Their pax were at least given a refund, but their travel plans had been irrevocably trashed. Blue Air is another who blamed Brexit for the sudden canx. Not very credible, methinks.

[Ibbie]

Seems "sister"Airline Investments Limited airline Loganair has taken on five ex-flybmi routes from Aberdeen from next month. They are to be flown by Embraer jets, which transfered from Flybmi to Loganair in the last few months of last year.

[Undried Plum]

The parent company failed to file its accounts for the year to Mar'18 last year. It is flagged at Company House as having been overdue since late last year. That's never a good sign.

Of course the Bond family protected its aircraft assets by lodging them under a separate company name. Imagine my surprise that the same aircraft suddenly pop up under the guise of Loganair after BMI so 'unexpectedly' went tits up.

I very strongly suspect that the Bond family owners/directors either knew or should have known about the forthcoming "unexpected" demise of BMI. The poor suckers who handed over their pre-paid fare money certainly didn't.

All perfectly legal of course, and that's the problem. There's a very large and grubby loophole in Corporate law which allows people like the Bond family to do this without actually being criminals. They can do it as many times as they like. Rinse and repeat. So they do.

[Ibbie]

Another six of the remaining Embraer 145 fleet transfered to Loganair last Friday, 22 February.

[Undried Plum]

Imagine my surprise!