bmi Announces New Flights to Europe and North Africa

NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- British Midland International (bmi) has announced today new services from London Heathrow to Europe and North Africa.  bmi, Heathrow's second largest airline, will offer new daily flights to Bergen and Stavanger in Norway effective April 1, 2011, and new services to Casablanca and Marrakech in Morocco. Direct flights to Casablanca will operate four times per week from April 2, 2011, and flights to Marrakech will operate three times per week from London Heathrow from April 1, 2011.

The new routes are available for booking at flybmi.com.  The new services from Heathrow will be operated using an Airbus A319 and offer a full service business class and economy cabin.

bmi is now the only airline to serve Bergen from Heathrow.  This is great news for leisure travelers who want to visit the Norwegian Fjords as well as for business travelers.  Flights to Stavanger enable customers to access the important oil and energy markets in Norway.

In addition to the route expansion at Heathrow, bmi aircrafts will fly on some Lufthansa services from Birmingham and Manchester to Frankfurt. From March 27, 2011 the bmi A320 family aircraft will be used on three of the four daily Lufthansa Services from both Birmingham and Manchester. These services connect key business centers with convenient flight schedules, and offer onward connection possibilities to global destinations with Lufthansa from their Frankfurt hub. The aircraft are being fully refurbished and will offer a full service business class and economy product according to Lufthansa standards. 

Wolfgang Prock Schauer, Chief Executive Officer, bmi, said: 

"London Heathrow is the home of bmi and as the second largest airline at Heathrow we will continue to offer our customers attractive business and leisure destinations.

"To meet the clear demand for further growth, we are offering new direct services to Norway and Morocco which builds on our network strategy to focus on international routes whilst still providing key domestic connectivity to London Heathrow.  

"This news follows the recent announcement of new flights from Heathrow to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and a double daily service from Heathrow to Beirut.  In addition we have just launched new services from Heathrow and Manchester to Basel in Switzerland in partnership with SWISS. 

"A strong part of our network strategy within the Lufthansa group of airlines is a focus on connecting key cities and strengthening our hubs. The latest cooperation with Lufthansa from both Birmingham and Manchester to Frankfurt is just another example of how we can further enhance the service offering to the customers of both airlines by working closely together.

"These enhancements reflect bmi's network strategy to have a stronger focus on international routes." 

Due to the recently announced increases by British Airline Authority (BAA) in domestic passenger charges at London Heathrow by more than 50 percent, effective April 1, 2011, bmi will regrettably suspend its seven daily flights between London Heathrow and Glasgow, from March 27, 2011.  In light of the imposed increases by BAA, bmi has launched a complaint under section 41 of the Airports Act 1986 and has asked the Civil Aviation Authority to investigate BAA as it believes the airport operator is unreasonably discriminating against domestic passengers and domestic operators from London Heathrow.  

bmi is committed to Scotland and Northern Ireland and regards its United Kingdom and Ireland network as part of its core business and will continue to focus on strongholds like Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Belfast City, each operating six times a day, and to Dublin operating five times a day. Manchester is also an important market for bmi and the airline will offer four flights a day to London Heathrow which provides ideal connections to the rest of the bmi and Star Alliance partner network from Heathrow.  

British Midland International is the second largest airline at London Heathrow, one of the world's leading international hub airports. Across its mainline route network bmi operates to Aberdeen; Addis Ababa; Almaty; Amman; Baku; Basel; Beirut; Belfast City; Bergen; Berlin; Bishkek; Cairo; Casablanca; Damascus; Dammam; Dublin; Edinburgh; Frankfurt; Freetown; Glasgow; Hanover; Jeddah; Khartoum; London Heathrow; Manchester; Marrakech; Moscow Domodedovo; Riyadh; Stavanger; Tbilisi; Tehran; Tripoli; Vienna and Yerevan.

SOURCE bmi