bmi adopts low-cost airline model

British airline bmi is transforming its services on popular flights from London Heathrow.

It has decided to follow the lead of its subsidiary low-cost airline offshoot, bmibaby, offering cheap flight deals by operating no-frills flights.

The airline is now giving passengers the choice of whether to buy a low-cost plane ticket, which does not include an in-flight catering service and has a scaled-back ground service, or to continue to buy standard tickets.

With the exception of flights from Heathrow to Edinburgh, Belfast and Brussels, the airline will no longer offer business class services, offering a single-class service along the lines of low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet.

It has also begun selling tickets for these flights on the website of its low-cost airline, bmibaby.

Bmi claims that the new strategy is a result of the declining demand for business class travel, with most businesses now opting for no frills flights in order to cut costs.

"More than half of our passengers travel on business - but most of them do so in the rear of the aircraft," commented the airline's chief executive Nigel Turner.

"They or their companies choose to travel in economy. And our leisure travellers are getting lowest fares but a full-service offering."

The decision by bmi is an indication of the growing popularity of low-cost airlines in Europe, with passengers attracted by the ease of booking and by the cheap flight deals offered by no frills airlines.

This shift has hit traditional airlines such as bmi hard, with flights operated by low-cost airline bmibaby proving more popular with passengers than bmi flights so far this year.

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