bmi plans for threatened BA disruption

Heathrow’s second biggest airline bmi is putting in place contingency plans that will enable the airline to carry any passengers that are caught up in the threatened industrial action and disruption to BA services next week.

To meet demand the airline plans to increase its capacities at Heathrow by placing larger aircraft on existing flights. bmi also aims to increase frequencies by utilising take-off and landing slot availability that is created by any BA flight cancellations.

Nigel Turner, chief executive officer of bmi, said: “Air travellers have had to endure two periods of considerable disruption in the last six months alone at Heathrow. On both of these occasions bmi pulled out all the stops to minimise inconvenience to our customers as opposed to total route cancellations by our major competitor.

“We are determined that during any period of British Airways flight cancellations we will get passengers to their destination on the services of bmi wherever possible. Where practical we will be opening up more capacity on existing services to accommodate additional demand for seats. We will also operate additional services as and when more take-off and landing slots become available due to BA cancellations.

“The message is clear: if you are travelling to destinations that are served by both ourselves and BA, then we are doing all we can to make sure that you can make a reservation with us in advance. We are also working to ensure we can accommodate passengers on the day.”

bmi serves the following key destinations which are also served by BA from Heathrow: Manchester; Aberdeen; Glasgow; Edinburgh; Brussels; Paris; Amsterdam; Moscow; Lyon.

bmi serves the following key destinations from Heathrow which are also served by BA from London Gatwick: Venice; Dublin.