Stormy weather ahead for BMed as potential investors circle

The skies between the Levant and London got a little cloudier at the start of the year, as airline BMed admitted it had suffered such substantial losses in 2005 and 2006 that its main stakeholders refused to pump more cash into the operation. According to the Times of London, BMed reported profits of $10 million in the financial year ending on March 31, 2005. Indeed, the carrier (formerly British Mediterranean Airlines) boasted impressive annual growth rates through 2004, before taking an initial blow from increased fuel costs. But profits were hit hardest last year by Israel’s war. Jokes in Beirut suggested that the airline should appoint certain anti-government Lebanese politicians as marketing agents, because every inflammatory statement and call for protests led to a spike in bookings on BMed flights from Beirut to the calmer shores of the Thames. Nonetheless, UK media projected 12-month losses of BMed by to reach