Fly bmi

[lbaspotter]

Re: British Midland International (BMI)

Well goods news to report, As the sale of bmi's regional division by British Airways (IAG) has been given approval by the UK's CAA and completed this morning to Aberdeen based Sector Aviation Holding.

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/ ... leted.html

Looks like some new jobs are going to be created down at East Midlands. They has been no news yet regarding the airlines Leeds - Brussels route, But it's future operation is looking more positive now compared to earlier in the year.

 

[Bigman]

Re: British Midland International (BMI)

Rumours recently going around about a possible new route from Scotland to LBA. Interesting therefore that BMI have just announced Aberdeen-Bristol yesterday. I wonder where this will leave our Eastern Airways service.

 

[lbaspotter]

Re: British Midland International (BMI)

Don't know if anyone knows this already on here, But seen as its not been mentioned bmi regional's existing BD flight code is changing to BM as of Sunday, October 28th.

Also I have just noticed that a new advertisement with the new look bmi regional logo has appeared on the LBIA website today advertising the Leeds-Bradford - Brussels route operating up to 3 times a day!
Well I didn’t know that the frequency was been increased back up to 3 day from the current 2x daily Embrear 135 service. When was that announced or confirmed by the airline??

 

[White Heather]

Re: British Midland International (BMI)

Quite sad that the old BD flight code is going. It's been BD for years and years. I always remember BD411 - 420, the LHR flights from 1980 - 2009. In all those years I don't think those flight numbers ever changed.

 

[tleeds]

Re: British Midland International (BMI)

The new logo has been tweaked a little and does look quite nice, although the advert is saying up to twice daily, and I can't see where it says 3 times daily..?

 

[dmrodgers]

Re: British Midland International (BMI)

The new logo has been tweaked a little and does look quite nice, although the advert is saying up to twice daily, and I can't see where it says 3 times daily..?

Think the airport have realised the mistake and amended the advert as it definitely said 3 times daily yesterday. It now appears correct with 2 departures per day.

 

[BradfordExPat]

Re: British Midland International (BMI)

After seeing 3 times daily on here yesterday, I checked the advert and it did say up to 3 times daily. Also, on checking the LBA timetable on the website it says there'll be 3 flights a day on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 29th March to 5th September next year (albeit that the timetable is unconfirmed and says it's based on 2012!)

 

[White Heather]

Re: British Midland International (BMI)

Perhaps a slip which has inadvertantly revealed what will happen next year.

 

[lbaspotter]

Re: British Midland International (BMI)

The last ever BD (bmi british midland) coded flight into Leeds-Bradford operates this evening with the BD1616 service from Brussels. It should be operated by Embrear 135, G-RJXK. As of Sunday all Leeds-Bradford - Brussles flights should operate with the new bmi regional flight code, BM

The last ever commercial bmi british midland BD Coded flight i understand operates tomorrow evening into London Heathrow with the 22:30 arrival BD928 from Baku.On arrival it will receive a water cannon arch salute from the airport's fire tenders to welcome it home for the last ever time.

Also note that the bmi british midland http://www.flybmi.com website will be closed from tomorrow evening. All new bookings made for the Leeds-Bradford - Brussles service are now been handled by the new bmi regional website at http://www.bmiregional.com

 

[lbaspotter]

A very interesting interview with bmi regional's Chief executive Cathal O’Connell explaining there future growth plans has appeared on the ABTN Business travel website this past week. See link for full details http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/feature/2820178-interview-cathal-o’connell-bmi-regional

I've highlighted and quoted the 2 most important parts below.

[hi-lighty:13y79ugn]We’ve had discussions with numerous airports and we have identified a number of new routes which we will be announcing soon. These routes will be from UK regional airports to European destinations, and they will be primarily business travel destinations.[/hi-lighty:13y79ugn]

Now I wonder if they have any plans for new routes from Leeds as routes to Copenhagen and Aberdeen had both been rumoured last year after they became fully independent of the old Bmi/BA? Also its good news that it looks like there talking about getting a codeshare agreement for the Leeds - Brussels service again...

[hi-lighty:13y79ugn]We already have a number of interline agreements with several former partners which we are using to connect passengers. We see codeshares as being an important part of our strategy of feeding into major European hubs such as Brussels or Frankfurt so we can provide worldwide connectivity from airports such as East Midlands and Leeds-Bradford[/hi-lighty:13y79ugn].

 

[whoshotjimmi]

Having read through that report, two things struck me.

Firstly, it is clearly stated that the european network will expand at a faster rate than domestic. This leads me to suspect that Aberdeen is a no goer - the competition is a major drawback to this service - even though Aberdeen - Bristol is now direct through BMI.

Secondly, with regards to route expansion, it is noted that the routes will be business oriented and that they are multi-frequency (2 or more per day). If BMI were to launch something at LBA, i would suggest that a pre requisite would be multi frequency which effectively rules out Copenhagen. It would also effectively mean that BMI require a multi aircraft base at LBA.

The main question I would ask is what business routes are required from LBA that demand at least 2 flights a day that could justify additional aircraft basing?

 

[Bigman]

Why would multi-frequency rule out Copenhagen? Surely businessmen want a morning and evening flight as is common with every other business route that I can think of. I think the fact that they previously operated it once a day contributed to it's downfall.

P.S - Happy New Year everyone!!

 

[Aviador]

Recent murmurs by BMI suggest that Bristol airport is one of the airports they are looking at expanding from. LBA will have to work extra hard to entice them to add news flights out of Leeds Bradford if they only have a limited number of aircraft to achieve their objectives.

 

[lbaspotter]

If i remember correctly the Leeds - Copenhagen route was doing quite well passenger wise as it also had a SAS codeshare before it was dropped when we hit the resession back in 2008. At the time bmi decided to pull one of the 4x LBA based Embrear’s as they dropped the Paris Cdg service which did the Copenhagen runs in-between its Paris duties.

Then to make matters worse a they decided switch around the Edinburgh and Glasgow routes from been Leeds based aircraft to been Scottish based so we lost 3 based aircraft in one hit which also saw the Cork and Jersey routes and that ill attempt to run a service Lille been dropped as well. That just left the 1x remaining Embrear based aircraft to operate the 3x daily (At the time) Brussels route.
Well that’s was until a 2nd Embrear 145 reappeared to operate 4x daily London Heathrow service after they pulled the Airbus aircraft of the route. As its German owners Lufthansa wanted to kill the route and wanted the Heathrow slots for service’s that in the long run actually killed bmi british midland.

Its unbelievable now to think that back in 2007 bmi british midland group had the biggest single operation out off LBA with 6x based aircraft. 1 A320 operating the My Travel Holidays charter flights Programme, 1x A319 operating the 4x daily London-Heathrow and based 4x Embraer 135/145’s operating daily weekday services to 4x Edinburgh, 3x Glasgow, 3x Brussels, 2x Paris Cdg, 1x Copenhagen, 1x Jersey and 1x Cork .

 

[Jordan-34092]

Out of curiosity, has anyone heard anything about expansions of BMI Regional Base at LBA, it's just if i seem to recall all the airline is expanding at other UK airports along with outside the UK. It be good to see a few new routes with BMI Regional from Leeds Bradford.

 

[LBA787]

Sad news today folks, the bmi regional base at LBA is to close with the BRU service suspended from may.

Internal confirmation from the crews. :s_cry

:crazy:

 

[lbaspotter]

This was hinted a few weeks back on prune website. Yet another business route lost as well a long term resident airline to LBA. It will be such a shame to see the bmi brand disappear from the Yorkshire region altogether come May.
But I've got to admit I’m not really surprised with this news. The passenger numbers on the Leeds - Brussels route have been falling ever since the recession hit in 2008. It got even worse last year when bmi regional went independent as it lost its Star Alliance connections with Brussels Airlines a which brought with it lucrative connections.

I honestly think no airline will want to replace it now. Newcastle recently lost its 3x daily service to Brussels and no one has jumped in to replace yet...

It would seem the last service will be the BMR1615/1616 operated on Monday, May 6th as flights are no longer bookable after that date on http://www.bmiregional.com

 

[Galaxy]

Sad to see it go, but to be honest I think they over charge on this route. It is one of the few short routes from LBA that I haven't done for that reason. I'm comparing of course to other flights of around 1 hour from LBA, for the casual daytripper / overnighter like me price is important, and if other destinations are cheaper, then I'll go with them.

 

[pug]

Im sure I already replied but its disappeared..

Shame to see the route and airline go, anything to do with LHR route perhaps? Wouldn't be completely surprised to see a new route or two from DSA now, seems like a good setup to trial a business oriented operation from there.

 

[a300boy]

Sorry to see it go for the sake of the staff. However the fares and weird schedules have made the service unusable. I am sure Bmi would argue that is not the case but in the days of code share and 4 flights a day with Sabena it was an excellent experience. I did it a few times with Bmi in the early days and gave up as I never knew which days it did what.