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Bmi British Midland: Willie Walsh, the chief executive of the International Airlines Group (formed by the merger of BA and Iberia), has expressed a renewed interest in buying bmi, in a bid for the airline’s valuable slots at Heathrow. He was speaking at the International Air Transport Association summit in Singapore where he said a potential deal hinged on whether current owner Lufthansa was willing to sell. Meanwhile in a bid to cut costs, bmibaby has moved 80 staff previously were based at Pegasus Business Park, next to East Midlands Airport into offices in Donington Hall. They are now housed across a floor of Hastings House, adjacent to the main Donington Hall building located on a 1,100 acre estate in Castle Donington, North West Leicestershire, close to the city of Derby.

British Airways (BA): The ballot on the latest attempt to end BA cabin crew dispute closed on 22nd June, 18 months after Unite opened its first strike ballot on the dispute. Nearly 10,000 ballot papers were posted out to cabin crew with a letter from its general secretary, Len McCluskey, recommending a vote in favour of the agreement. If accepted the deal would see travel concessions returned to 6,700 union members who went on strike last year and third-party arbitration for those employees on disciplinary charges. It also includes a two-year pay deal. The peace deal being voted on was agreed between McCluskey and BA's new chief executive, Keith Williams, after two previous agreements were rejected by Unite. Mr. Williams has admitted that BA's image suffered during 22 days of strikes last year saying "One of the things we need to do is rebuild the brand image which inevitably suffers during a protracted dispute," He added that relationships strained by the dispute, including between striking and non-striking crew, have improved since the strikes ended. "I think it has got better and will get better over time," Elsewhere BA is to invest £5.5 billion to buy new aircraft as part of its fleet expansion, adding more Boeing 777-300(ER)s, 12 Airbus A380s and 24 Boeing 787s to its existing fleet. It is also investing more in introducing new cabins and new in-flight entertainment systems on existing aircraft. The news comes as BA took delivery of its 100th Airbus aircraft. The new A320, G-EUYL delivered on 1st June joins the two A318s, 33 A319s, 48 A320s and 16 A321s previously acquired by BA, though not all are still in service. The 100th aircraft is also the 205th Airbus single-aisle delivered to International Airlines Group, which was formed in January this year with the merger of BA and Iberia.

easyJet: easyJet pilots have voted to accept a pay and scheduling deal following years of difficult relations that caused punctuality to plummet last year. The deal was recommended by the British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) after the airline’s chief executive, Carolyn McColl, apologised for poor relations between pilots and management. Around 85% of easyJet’s pilots voted in favour of new terms, which will see them get a 4% increase in salaries, backdated to 1st October and a 5% rise in sector pay. BALPA General Secretary, Jim McAuslan, described Ms. McColl’s intervention as “game-changing and brave” adding “The relationship between easyJet and its pilots has not been a good one over recent years. But the CEO's intervention that recognised the poor state of relations with this professional staff group and promising a new, refreshed, constructive partnership”. From 7th June easyJet began selling flexible tickets via its website in a bid to attract more business travellers as it aims to raise the number of its business travellers from 18% to 21%. The flexible fares, which start at £99.99 pounds (€113.27), allow passengers to change the date of their flights up to two hours before departure and will also let customers check a bag at no extra cost and give them priority boarding passes. easyJet reported a 11.3% growth in passengers for the month of May, but saw a 1.7 percentage points decline in its load factor. It carried 4.74 million last month, up from 4.26 million a year ago. easyJet which has just taken delivery of its 200th Airbus aircraft, is in the middle of a major fleet planning exercise that could result in a rescheduling of its Airbus orders, as it examines how to adjust capacity growth in the face of near-term market uncertainties. There are various options open to them such as lease extensions or returns, or even the deferral of orders. The 200th aircraft, A320-214, G-EZUI was delivered in late May as has a special 200th all orange livery.

Flybe: Flybe launched a new Student Baggage Discount product on 1st June allowing passengers possessing a valid student ID to carry two bags weighing up to 40 kg in total for the price of only one standard hold bag when travelling to and from Belfast, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey to other points in the UK. Delivery of its first Embraer EMB175-200STD, G-FBEO has been delayed to mid July, with the second aircraft G-FBEP to follow a few days later.

Monarch Airlines: Monarch Airlines, which offers seasonal services to Faro, Fuerteventura, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Reus, Tenerife-South and Zakynthos from its Dublin base, has announced a new emphasis on full service scheduled services from UK to holiday destinations. After years operating mainly in the IT charter market it has decided to compete with Ryanair, easyJet and BA on quality. By next summer it expects 80% of its business to be scheduled compared with 20% five years ago. Monarch is also planning to expand its fleet by at least a third. Currently, Monarch has 30 aircraft, but its chief executive, Conrad Clifford, has said he will look to increase this by at least 10 over the next five years.