Talk:British Midland International/Archive 1

Grammar and Links

Various grammatical errors and incorrect source linkage plague this article. It requires copy editing, specifically in the frequent flyer program section and at the end of the history section. --Bshrode 05:14, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

I think I have tidied up the grammar, however not the sources. If you agree that the grammar is tidied, perhaps a "Citation needed" tag would be appropriate? Flymeoutofhere 12:14, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Destination article merger

Disagree - simply because the Wikipedia:WikiProject_Airlines#Structure has laid down the formatting for such articles, with which a stand alone article complies, and is in keeping with other major airline articles. --Ayrshire--77 10:10, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

bmi Diamond Club

The program does not need its own page. It isn't noteworthy enough for a standalone article and should be merged in, just like other frequent flyer programs have been (with a few exceptions). Dbinder 08:43, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Agree, and have done it. The "article" was a single line, there was already more information in the main article/wangi 09:01, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

US Flights

The article states that Singapore Airlines has rights to fly transatlantic flights. Can that be verified. User:klnilsson2

If you go to Singapore Airlines' website, you can book transatlantic flights operated by SQ (e.g. JFK-FRA). Dbinder 11:58, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

They do however not fly from Heathrow to the US, which is what this article says. klnilsson2 06:11, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Then that should be removed. I would assume they can't fly from Heathrow, considering how controlling the UK is over rights there. Dbinder 12:32, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the SQ (singapore Airlines) thing being incoorect, technically isn't the aircanda inclusion also incorrect. I believe they aren't allowed to offer LHR-US flights. Transatalantic from Heathrow yes, but the article mentions LHR-US flights. 86.131.217.210 11:02, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Capitalization

Even if "bmi" is officially in all lower-case letters, it should be capitalized at the beginning of a sentence, just like any other word made up of all lower-case letters. Acsenray 19:46, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

No, brand names should stay as they were created by the company

Has a company the faculty to change grammar rules? --89.97.35.70 12:38, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

No, a company does not. Furthermore, WP:MOS-TM explicitly states we should not be leaving this all-lowercase. I'm going to fix it.--chris.lawson 22:20, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I've done the move, but I don't have time to fix all the double-redirects. Can someone help me out, please? Thanks.--chris.lawson 22:30, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Drone... you've made your own work there pal... /wangi 08:51, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Is it "bmi" or "BMI"? Infobox says "bmi", article says "BMI". --Ysangkok 20:09, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Writing it as 'BMI' with full capitalisation suggests that the letters are initials and that it stands for something, which it doesn't. Whilst common sense would have you think that it means 'British Midland I-something', the company have never officially confirmed this nor officially said what the 'i' stands for. Wouldn't this therefore mean that it is just a name? In which case the grammatically correct way of writing it should be 'Bmi'. --86.145.214.30 13:00, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Both bmi and BMI are registered trade marks of British Midland [1][2] so both are correct, in the context of tradenames then Bmi is not correct. As the lower case is what is used on the company website then we should use that. I understand that problems with the way wikipedia handles capitals is why the article is BMI. MilborneOne 14:14, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

History

I suggest removal of the following sections under the 'History' heading:

Virgin Atlantic was the main airline hoping to buy the shares and then forming a merger of the two airlines. A merger would bring together two well respected airlines with combined ticket sales of more than £2 billion, forming a powerful force in the aviation industry. Neither company would comment on the talks. BMI, headed by Sir Michael Bishop, is believed to have initiated the talks after it fell deep into the red following the September 11 attacks. A merger would give Virgin's Sir Richard Branson a far stronger base at Heathrow (where BMI has hundreds of valuable take-off and landing slots) to increase the competition with his rival British Airways.

The two airlines would have 17% of Heathrow slots against British Airways's 43%. British Airways was worried about the rivalry it would face if a merger went ahead, and considered the take over of either BMI or Virgin Atlantic to stop the merger of the two airlines. British Airways concluded it would be easier to take over the smaller airline Virgin Atlantic. In 2004 talks of any merger of the three airlines stopped.

The reason I am of the opinion the above sections should not appear in the article at all is because these are not hard facts, only repetitve airline industry rumour. Therefore, only facts that are verifiable should be included. For the same reason, I would also like to suggest removing the passage referring to "renewed speculation" about a Virgin-bmi tie-up and its supposed advantages.

Furthermore, on the topic of accuracy, it would also be worth mentioning in the section relating to bmi baby's formation in 2002 that another important reason for that airline's formation was the fact that the severe downturn caused by the tragic events of 9/11 had suddenly left bmi with a number of surplus 737s, which could only have been disposed of at a loss in the then prevailing harsh economic environment.

In addition, I also find it worth mentioning that the only reason bmi has been able to report any profit at all since 9/11 is because Lufthansa and SAS, its two largest minority shareholders, are contractually obliged to carry 90% of the losses bmi has incurred on its domestic and European scheduled routes from both Heathrow and Manchester under the joint venture they set up with bmi in 1999. This is the main reason Lufthansa and SAS have sought to divest themselves of their minority stakes in bmi's holding company. It is also the main reason both of these airlines have already notified bmi that they will not agree to any further extension of their loss-making short-haul joint venture when it expires in 2009.

Pimpom123 12:54, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

If you known the article to be wrong or inaccurate you can amend (or remove text) yourself, as long as you can provide references or citations. If you are not happy with the contents and do not want to change it you can challenge it by adding a {{Fact}} tag on the relevant paragraph. If anybody is not happy with the changes that you make it can be discussed in detail on this page. 13:19, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Body Mass Index, etc.

Shouldn't there be a link to the BMI (disambiguation) page? It's not a rare abbreviation. Robin Z 15:37, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

 Done--Svetovid 11:11, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

FWIW, I'd suggest moving this article to "BMI (airline)" and retargeting "BMI" to "Body mass index". I think many more people looking for "BMI" are looking for that article and not the airline. Just a stranger's suggestion, Lunch 22:20, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

I'd agree with that suggestions - BMI (Body Mass index) is the more common use of BMI rather than this use based airline. Anyone want to make the move? --Fredrick day 12:07, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest that in aviation BMI is more associated with the airline not Body Mass Index, I would think that the link to the disambig page is OK. Remember that BMI is not an abbreviation and would have a better claim than an expanded abbreviation Body Mass Index. But remember NPOV perhaps we should add a direct link at the top of the page. MilborneOne 12:16, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

FYI, I got here by searching BMI expecting to automatically redirect to Body mass index. I then took the single click to get to what I was after thanks to the link at the top. (Thanks!) I came back to see if there was any talk about that situation. I'm now wondering though if BMI should redirect to the disambiguation page? Just a thought... --Siradia 06:51, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Codeshares

If you look at bmi's page about the airlines they codeshare with, Egypt Air is not listed. However if you look at the press release regarding the new service to Cairo it clearly states that they are in a codeshare agreement on this route.

bmi do not seem to update the alliance/codeshares page very often to reflect such changes (if you look at the Star Alliance page - they still list Varig as a member!), therefore I think it is only fair that given all the information at our disposal, that we include Egypt Air in the codeshares list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.233.188.252 (talk) 13:20, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

FAC

There is a fac template on this page, but the article was never submitted to WP:FAC. The article is quite far from featured status; may I suggest instead submitting the article to WP:PR or WP:GAN? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 02:16, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Founded in 1938 or 1949?

On the BMI website, it states that Air Schools Limited was founded in 1938, and Derby Aviation Limited was a 1949 milestone. Their history page states:

bmi began life in 1938 as Air Schools Ltd, specialising in RAF pilot training. In 1949 the company becomes known as Derby Aviation, diversifying operations to include passenger and cargo charter services.

So given this, when was the airline formed? And was Derby Aviation Limited a subsidiary of Air Schools Limited? Or did Air Schools Limited simply change its name to Derby Aviation Limited? If it is the latter, then 1938 would be the foundation date. --Россавиа ^Диалог 10:43, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Just to answer on e question, the legal entity that is British Midland Airways Limited (English company 00464648) was incorporated on the 16 February 1949. Companies House MilborneOne (talk) 20:23, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Just to add if the company had changed name Companies House would show the older date. MilborneOne (talk) 20:26, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Further - British Independent Airlines & Operators since 1946 - Shortly after the end of the war, two airlines were born one at Burnaston as Derby Aviation, the other one at Wolverhampton as Wolverhampton Aviation which as the name implies was formed at Wolverhampton, which was also operated by Air Schools. Both these companies were subsidary's of Air Schools, and were mainly responsible for aircraft maintenance. MilborneOne (talk) 10:47, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Redundancies

This can be updated in when required —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.103.139.149 (talk) 22:10, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Name change

I think we should change the name of the article. Corporate image is bmi not BMI. I think we should change it to bmi (airline). Thanks Zaps93 (talk) 10:48, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Read WP:MOSTM, this will explain why we use BMI. Nouse4aname (talk) 10:46, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Lowercase...again

Yet again BMI is being changed to bmi. Please read the following guidelines and policy to understand why this is incorrect:

WP:MOSTM states:

Follow standard English text formatting and capitalization rules, regardless of the preference of trademark owners.

Wikipedia:Name#Use_standard_English_for_titles_even_if_trademarks_encourage_otherwise states:

Follow standard English text formatting for article names that are trademarks. Items in full or partial uppercase…should have standard capitalization

The correct usage is thus BMI, and as previously discussed above, should not be reverted to bmi or any other variation. Nouse4aname (talk) 09:30, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Can't see this from the link you refer to - according to that link it should be Bmi. Since the i in bmi does not have a clear meaning, I can't see why it should be called BMI. Maybe it should be BMi? British Midland... --77.109.104.122 (talk) 16:22, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

According to this press release, "BMI" stands for "British Midland International". ···日本穣^? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:29, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Its British Midland International now so the BMI acronym in correct even if it wasnt initially, also I fully agree airline trademark/branding style should never be used for title headers at wikipedia, some others that need changing are Airblue to Air Blue airBaltic to Air Baltic.116.71.22.219 (talk) 05:33, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

G-BMAG

Hi, the section on the history of DC-9 G-BMAG is a bit overdone I think, especially because there is no rationale why this particular aircraft should be included. Unless somebody can provide good reasons why it should stay there, I will delete it Antheii (talk) 14:08, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

international?

the start of this article refers to "British Midland International". Where is the evidence that the "i" in "bmi" is for "international"? I can understand why people make the assumption, but there is no evidence for it. bmi do not ever mention "British Midland International", as far as I'm aware. Griffindd (talk) 12:11, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

See here. SempreVolando (talk) 12:35, 24 June 2010 (UTC)