bmi announce major expansion for summer 2007

bmi regional, officially the UK’s most punctual and reliable airline, has announced a major expansion programme for summer 2007.

The full service, all-jet, regional carrier will start taking delivery of a further four Embraer 145 aircraft early in 2007. This will take the total fleet up to 20 aircraft.

The new aircraft will be used to support an expansion programme that will see bmi regional launch daily flights from Edinburgh to Zurich. The service will establish new links between the Scottish capital and the major Swiss business and finance centre.

Additionally, Scottish travellers will benefit from a new daily service establishing a direct link between Aberdeen and the Norwegian city of Kristiansand.

New links will also be created from Leeds Bradford airport when bmi regional launches a daily service to the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

Extra services are to be introduced to meet the continuing demand for bmi regional flights between Scotland and Manchester and Leeds Bradford. An additional return flight between Edinburgh and Manchester will take weekday services up to seven a day. Revised timings between Edinburgh and Leeds Bradford will create a new much-requested early morning service, departing the Scottish capital at 0705 and arriving in Leeds Bradford at 0805.

Stewart Adams, managing director of Aberdeen-based bmi regional, said: “We continue to expand our network of full-service, non-stop flights between Scotland and key destinations in the UK and Europe. The creation of new links between Edinburgh and Zurich will bring the businesses of these two cities and their communities much closer and doing business will be far easier. We expect the new bmi regional service from Aberdeen to Kristiansand, the key Norwegian centre for oil and gas engineering, to be a popular addition to the network. We are also pleased to confirm a new service that will establish the only direct air links between Leeds Bradford and Copenhagen.

“We know passengers prefer jets to turbo-propeller aircraft for reliability and speed. As an all-jet operator we therefore have a unique position over our regional competitors. This gives us the confidence to increase our fleet size to serve some exciting new destinations as well as meet the demand for additional services on some of our more established routes. This is good news as the growth is likely to create more employment opportunities within the airline as well as within the communities we serve.”