Ailing bmi scraps 600 jobs, loss-making routes

Bmi has announced plans to lay off 600 employees and axe five routes as part of a restructuring effort aimed at returning the company to profit.

Most of the job losses at the British airline – now fully owned by German flag carrier Lufthansa – will affect cabin crew and other front-line "operational" staff.

Bmi will also cease to operate outbound services to Tel Aviv, Brussels, Kiev and Aleppo as of next January, with flights to Amsterdam being axed in March.

Lufthansa no longer looking to offload bmi

Lufthansa has withdrawn bmi from sale and will now focus on returning the airline to profit, according to The Times.

The newspaper reports that Germany's national carrier was disappointed with the bids bmi has so far attracted and no longer views offloading it as the best option.

It had been seeking a buyer for the airline after a longstanding agreement with former bmi chairman Sir Michael Bishop forced it to take over the company earlier this year.

New codeshare agreement for bmi and Continental

Bmi and Continental Airlines have announced a new codeshare deal that will enable both carriers to broaden the number of flights they offer customers.

The agreement means bmi can now sell fares to Newark Liberty International in New York and George Bush Intercontinental in Houston from several UK airports.

Bmi axes flights on Heathrow to Tel Aviv route

Bmi will be cutting two flights per week from its twice-daily service between London Heathrow and Tel Aviv, Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reports.

From November onwards, the route will only be operated once on Friday and Saturday, with bmi blaming the reduction on falling demand and stiff competition.

Low-cost rival easyJet announced earlier in the summer that it plans to operate a five-times weekly service between London Luton and the Israeli city.

Bmi extends chauffeur service to regional bases

Business travellers flying with bmi from one of its regional bases can now take advantage of the carrier's free Chauffeur Drive service to and from the airport.

The perk, originally restricted to London Heathrow, will now be offered to premium customers at Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Manchester airports.

Bmi Regional strengthens Scottish connections

Bmi Regional has boosted capacity on its services from Leeds Bradford Airport to Glasgow and Edinburgh during the peak summer season.

As of yesterday (June 29), the low-cost carrier has been operating twice daily connections between the two Scottish airports and its Yorkshire base.

Bmi opens new lounge at Heathrow Airport

Bmi has unveiled a new international lounge for passengers travelling from London Heathrow Airport, situated above Gate 5 in Terminal 1.

Dubbed Bmi Number One Heathrow, the facility features free Wi-Fi access, boardroom-style meeting rooms and a cafe. It opened its doors on Monday (June 1).

Bmi proposes Baghdad flights

Daily flights from London Heathrow to Baghdad could take to the skies next year, if plans outlined by the airport's second-largest carrier are approved.

Nigel Turner, the chief executive of bmi, has said that his airline is "ready and willing" to re-establish direct links to the Iraqi capital from Britain's main hub.

Bmi drops fuel surcharge

Bmi has dropped fuel surcharges on all of its UK and European services, as it looks to increase passenger numbers in difficult economic circumstances.

The offer comes as many other airlines increase their additional charges for baggage, check-in and seat selection, amidst wide-scale discounts on base fares.

Strictly subject to availability, the discount means that passengers will only be required to pay their fare, taxes and airport charges, which could offer savings of as much as £80.

Chauffeur service on more bmi routes

A complimentary chauffeur drive service has been made available for business travellers on three more bmi routes, the airline has announced.

The service has been launched on routes from Heathrow Airport to Cairo, Tel Aviv and Beirut.

This brings the total number of routes which can make use of the service up to six and will be seven at the end of this month when the new direct route to Kiev from Heathrow launches.

Bmi adds Kiev flights

Bmi has announced that it will begin operating flights to Ukraine's capital from March 29, 2009.

The regional airline, formally known as British Midland, has introduced the five times a week service to Kiev to its summer schedule.

Bmi closes two domestic routes

Bmi has announced its decision to close its routes from the UK's capital to the north of England.

The regional airline will end flights from London Heathrow Airport to both Leeds Bradford Airport and Durham Tees Valley Airport on March 28, 2009.

Bmi extends mobile boarding

Bmi is hoping to entice passengers into using its services after announcing that it will offer paperless boarding and mobile check-in on all of its routes from London Heathrow Airport.

The regional airline is enabling customers to request boarding passes to be sent to their mobile phones during the mobile check-in process, on flights in and out of the UK's busiest airport.

Bmi doubles Tel Aviv service

Bmi has announced that it will add a second daily service to its London Heathrow Airport to Tel Aviv schedule.

The British airline will offer passengers greater "flexibility" from March 30 2009, with the addition of an evening service departing from Heathrow at 9.55pm and arriving in Tel Aviv at 4.55am local time.

This schedule expansion will be operated alongside the additional morning service, which leaves Heathrow at 11.15am and touches down in Israel's second largest city 6.05pm local time.

Air Malta and bmi sign agreement

A codeshare agreement signed by Air Malta and bmi is expected to improve connectivity between the Mediterranean country of Malta and the UK.

The partnership will allow the low-cost carrier to use its own flight codes on services operated by Malta's national airline to the UK, and in turn, will see Air Malta use its codes on bmi flights.

Bmi increases Riyadh service

Bmi has doubled the number of services it operates between London Heathrow Airport and Riyadh.

The British airline, which is headquartered in Castle Donington, will now offer passengers the opportunity to travel to the capital city of Saudi Arabia on one of six weekly flights.

Flights departing on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday will continue to the port province of Dammam, while on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday services will fly onwards to the coastal city of Jeddah.

Bmi wins Kiev approval

The Civil Aviation Authority has awarded bmi five flights a week between London Heathrow Airport and Kiev.

The British airline won approval to challenge British Airways on the route after the UK's flag carrier failed in its attempt to acquire the additional services, which were vacant following an agreement between the UK and Ukraine governments.

Bmi terminates Jersey route

Bmi has announced that it will terminate its services from London Heathrow Airport to Jersey from March 28. The British carrier has made the decision in response to difficult economic conditions in the aviation industry and reduced customer demand.

Passengers who have already booked flights that depart after the service terminates will be contacted and informed of alternative travel arrangements.

Bmi regional takes over Aberdeen flights

Bmi regional has announced that it will begin to operate services between Birmingham International Airport and Aberdeen Airport.

The low-cost airline revealed that it would be taking over the schedule from its partner company bmibaby from March 29 and will offer passengers the opportunity to purchase fares from just £30 one-way.

Bmi: Aviation 'future' depends on Heathrow

Bmi has suggested that the "future" of aviation rests on whether the government allows a third runway to be built at London Heathrow Airport.

The airline, which has an operational base at the UK's busiest airport, has suggested that a failure to expand Heathrow could lead to a decline in the travel industry and the loss of thousands of jobs.

In addition, the carrier, formerly known as British Midland, claimed that tourists will shun the UK in favour of European destinations like Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Bmi calls time on US flights from Manchester

Bmi has announced that it will be calling time on all of its transatlantic flights from Manchester Airport next year, as the company cannot deliver the passenger levels available in London.

Britain's second largest airline revealed that that it will discontinue its Airbus A330 flights to Chicago, Las Vegas and the Caribbean in January and April next year, just weeks after the final British Airways flight to the region left the north-west-based airport.

Bmi to boost capacity on Cairo and Amman routes

Bmi has announced plans to increase the capacity on two of its Heathrow routes.

From spring 2009, flights to Cairo and Amman will be serviced by two new wide-bodied Airbus A330 aircraft.

The airline explained that the routes, both introduced in 2007, were always intended to be boosted in this way. Nigel Turner, chief executive of bmi, said that the existing success of the Cairo and Amman routes makes them ideal for further "development and growth".

Bmi axes fuel surcharge on short-haul routes

Bmi has confirmed that it is removing all fuel surcharges on flights it operates within the UK and Europe.

The airline said it is making the move in recognition of the worsening economic situation, which it said heightened the need for "more affordable and transparent airfares".

Bmi axes Jeddah link in favour of Riyadh

Bmi has announced that it will double the frequency of its flights to the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, though it is axing services to other destinations in the country.

The UK's third-largest airline will stop running its direct Heathrow service to the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah from January 15, 2009, transferring its aircraft to the Riyadh route.

Services to the capital city will increase from three to six per week, with Friday being the only day when the carrier does not operate a flight to the destination.

Bmi forges new partnership with Brussels Airlines

Bmi has formalised a new deal with Brussels Airlines (website: www.brusselsairlines.com) that will see the two carriers cooperate on services between the UK and Belgium.

As part of the codeshare agreement, bmi will include in its daily offering flights operated between Brussels and Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Newcastle airports.

Brussels Airlines, meanwhile, will add three routes to its UK route network, connecting the EU's capital city to Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford and East Midlands airports.

Bmi reduces capacity on four domestic routes

Bmi is to downgrade some of its domestic services as part of a streamlining effort prompted by the industry downturn.

The carrier plans to deploy smaller planes on routes from London Heathrow to Aberdeen, Durham Teeside, Jersey and Leeds airports in a bid to cut its fuel costs.

It has also taken the unusual step of removing aircraft details from its website, seemingly enabling it to make further changes without prior notice to passengers.

Bmi cancels two routes from Heathrow

Bmi, the UK's third-largest airline, has announced that it is discontinuing two of its routes from London Heathrow Airport.

From mid-October, the carrier will no longer operate flights between the UK hub and the Turkish capital Ankara nor the central Russian city of Ekaterinburg.

The finals flights will take place on October 16 and October 13 respectively, having only been introduced last year as part of the airline's biggest ever route expansion.

Bmi gives website business-facing revamp

Bmi has re-designed its website in a further indication that Britain's third-largest carrier is beginning to focus on business travellers.

The airline has already launched part of the new-look website and additional features are due to be rolled out gradually in the run-up to its winter timetable, which begins on October 26.

Among the new business-leaning upgrades are an improved registration process; streamlined access to bookings; and an enhanced frequent flyer member area.

Bmi and bmibaby both reduce capacity

Bmi and its low-cost subsidiary bmibaby have both announced reduced capacities for the forthcoming winter season.

Britain's third largest airline is downgrading the size of the aircraft it deploys on its Durham Tees Valley to Heathrow connection, which operates 20 times a week.

Alongside that move, no-frills offshoot bmibaby is axing all its Cardiff to Barcelona flights from October 4.

Bmi to trial in-flight mobile phone service

Bmi is expected to begin trialling an in-flight mobile service later this month, The Telegraph reports.

It is believed that the carrier will launch the trial for SMS text messaging at first, before making a decision over whether to extend it to voice calls.

Any trial will require approval from the Civil Aviation Authority, which has already given the green light to several similar schemes.

Bmi scales back winter capacity at Heathrow

Bmi has confirmed it plans to scale back operations at Heathrow Airport in response to challenging market conditions, TTG reports.

With high fuel prices and burgeoning market competition still bearing down on profitability, the airline has decided to reduce the number of seats it offers on services from the UK hub.

Despite reducing capacity on key routes, the carrier says it has no intention of relinquishing any of its lucrative runways slots.

Second daily service to Moscow from bmi

Bmi has announced that it is adding a second daily service from London Heathrow Airport to Moscow Domodedovo.

The carrier already operates the second-largest number of flights out of the UK hub, behind only British Airways, and will now be expanding one of its key European routes.

Its new additional flight will take to the skies from the start of the winter schedule, offering economy fares from £247 return including charges and taxes.

Bmi responds to 'ghost flights' allegations

Bmi has angrily rejected allegations that it plans to operate near-empty 'ghost flights' in a bid to retain its slots at London Heathrow Airport.

After interviewing deputy chief executive Tim Bye, The Times reported this week that Britain's third largest carrier was committed to running services irrespective of passenger numbers.

Bye had categorically told the newspaper that under new "use-it-or-lose-it" rules imposed by the government, the airline will "have to keep flying to preserve our slots".

Bmi to run Heathrow 'ghost flights'

Bmi has admitted that it intends to run near-empty flights from London Heathrow Airport in order to retain its valuable take-off and landing slots, The Times reports.

The company said passenger numbers are expected to fall in the coming months as the economic downturn worsens, but insisted it would not be enticed to give up the coveted slots.

Heathrow operates at full capacity every day of the year and under new 'use-it-or-lose-it' rules airlines must forfeit their slots if they fail to run at least 80 per cent of services.

New Scandinavian services from bmi

Bmi regional is increasing the frequency of its Scandinavian services from two major UK airports.

The regional carrier - which uses a smaller fleet of aircraft than its parent carrier and focuses on business routes - is adding the flights to its Leeds Bradford and East Midlands bases.

Extra services to the capital cities of Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen will be operated up to three times per day, enabling same-day return on all three routes.

Bmi boosts services to Saudi Arabia

Bmi has announced plans to increase the frequency of several of its flight to Saudi Arabia.

The second-biggest carrier operating out of London Heathrow will add services from the UK hub to Jeddah, Dammam and capital city Riyadh.

Its expansion follows bilateral talks between the British and Saudi governments which increased in the maximum number of weekly flights between the two countries to 35.

Bmi expands Edinburgh to Copenhagen service

Bmi is boosting the frequency of its Edinburgh to Copenhagen service, adding a third return flight from July 21.

The low-cost carrier will then operate 18 connections a week between the Scottish and Danish capitals, with prices starting from £145 return including all taxes.

As a result of the expansion, passengers will be able to connect to a number of onward destinations operated by bmi regional's Star Alliance partners, including Oslo, Tokyo and Helsinki.

Text message boarding pass trialled by bmi

bmi is trialling a new boarding pass which is sent directly to travellers’ mobile phones.

Flyers on routes from London Heathrow Airport to Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast will get the chance to experience the new paperless system which will be sent as a text message displaying a barcode. This barcode will be scanned at security and at the boarding gate.

New Sierra Leone route from bmi

Bmi has launched a direct service to the west African nation of Sierra Leone.

The carrier will now operate four weekly flights from London Heathrow Airport to Freetown International Airport - departing on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

During a recent visit to the country, bmi chief executive Nigel Turner had pledged his airline's commitment to helping develop the fledgling economy.

bmi chairman criticises treatment of airlines

Sir Michael Bishop, the chairman of the bmi group, has said that the majority of airlines at Heathrow are fed up with being treated as second class citizens.

Addressing the Aviation Club in London yesterday (April 24), Sir Michael said the problems at Terminal 5, for which the airlines were "being charged through the nose", were the latest slur on the airport's reputation.

bmi launches Cardiff to Barcelona service

Low-cost carrier bmi is launching a new service between Cardiff and Barcelona, beginning on May 24.

Flights will be twice weekly on Tuesday and Saturday, and then from June 18 the airline will also be operating a service on Wednesdays.

Bmi is currently offering sale fares on the new route, starting at £24.99, including taxes and charges.

bmi criticises BAA's decision to delay Terminal 5 moves

Low-cost carrier bmi has criticised the recent decision by airport operator BAA to delay the move of long-haul services to Terminal 5.

The airline's chief executive, Nigel Turner, said that the announcement that the original March 30 move date had been pushed back until June this year was "absolutely outrageous" considering that no airline other than British Airways had been consulted on the decision.

bmi launches daily non-stop flights to Israel

Bmi has launched non-stop flights between London Heathrow Airport and Tel Aviv.

An Airbus A320 with 20 seats in Business Class and 108 in Economy serves the new route. With this new service, bmi now flies to 38 destinations from Heathrow.

Bmi has formulated the flight schedule to offer well-timed connections for passengers travelling from regional airports, such as Scotland, Manchester, Leeds Bradford, Durham Tees Valley and Belfast.

Bmi leases aircraft to allow Heathrow service increase

Bmi has announced the lease of two aircraft to allow it to increase the capacity and frequency of a number of its services from London Heathrow.

The airline has leased two Boeing 757-200s and, as a result, from May 1 it will be offering a new direct service to the Kazakhstan city of Almaty, reducing the current journey time to the destination by two hours.

From the same date it plans to offer direct flights to the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, with journey times reduced by an hour and an extra weekly flight introduced to bring the number of scheduled departures to four per week.

Cologne service from East Midlands takes to skies

East Midlands Airport now has a link to the German city of Cologne after the launch of a new route by bmi.

The airline's first flight to Cologne took off earlier this week, providing passengers from the Midlands a direct link to one of Europe’s most metropolitan areas all year round.

bmi regional will operate a six-times weekly service, except Saturday, with fares starting at £49 one-way, including taxes and charges.

Inverness link to London dropped by bmi

Airline bmi has said it will drop its daily service between Inverness and Heathrow in March, as part of a shake-up of its route network.

The changes will also see the company double the number of flights it offers between Heathrow and Moscow Domodedovo, increase the frequency of its service between Manchester and Heathrow as well as improve the schedule for the three times daily service between Heathrow and Durham Tees Valley.

Bmi's decision to end its link from Inverness to London on March 29 has been blamed on poor ticket sales and the increase in Air Passenger Duty, with the airline saying it did not expect to see any improvement in passenger numbers.

New Heathrow-Tel Aviv link from bmi

Bmi is to begin flying between London Heathrow and Tel Aviv early next year.

From March 13, the airline will start daily flights to the Israeli capital, with economy fares costing from £243.60 and business fares beginning at £881.60 (prices are for return tickets, including taxes and charges).

Outbound flights will depart Heathrow each day at 12.55pm, touching down in Tel Aviv at 7.55pm. On the way back, flights will leave Israel at 7.15am, getting back to London at 10.45am. Times are local.

This schedule has been designed to fit in with other bmi services to and from regional airports such as Leeds Bradford, Dublin and Manchester.

bmi increases frequency on Manchester to Barbados route

Bmi has increased the frequency of its flights between Manchester and Barbados to three times per week.

The airline is expecting a lot of take-up for the route to the Caribbean destination, and will fly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Fares for the route begin at £671 in economy, £1,211 in premium economy and £1,856 in business class. Business class and premium economy both feature flat beds and wide seating.

New East Midlands to Cologne service from bmi regional

A new route is to be launched between East Midlands Airport and Cologne, in Germany's Rhineland.

Beginning on February 11, 2008, bmi regional will operate a six-times weekly service, filling the gap left by easyJet when it withdrew from the route.

Embraer jets with both business and economy class will be used, and fares start at £49 one-way, including taxes and charges.

Passengers will also have the option of travelling onwards to destinations including Hamburg with bmi regional Star Alliance partner Lufthansa.

Bmi plans London - US flights in 2009

Bmi has announced it plans to begin flying between the UK and US in 2009 and not as soon as the Open Skies agreement becomes effective next year, Bloomberg reports.

Under the accord between the UK and US the airline, which is Britain's third largest, has the opportunity to launch flights to the US from London Heathrow in April 2008.

However, the carrier's chief executive, Nigel Turner, told an industry conference in London that bmi would delay the launch of any UK to US routes until 2009, citing a need to assess levels of both competition and demand.