bmi to launch services from Heathrow to Dammam

bmi, London Heathrow’s second largest airline, is to launch flights to Dammam in Saudi Arabia it was announced yesterday (Tuesday 6 November). Nigel Turner, bmi chief executive, unveiled plans at a press event in Egypt to mark the start of daily direct services from Heathrow to Cairo.

The news comes at the end of a week when bmi introduced 17 new routes, the largest ever expansion of its route network.

The new Dammam service, set to begin in early 2008, will operate three times a week on a wide-bodied Airbus A330 aircraft and is expected to build on the success of flights to bmi’s existing Saudi destinations – Riyadh, which launched in September 2005, and Jeddah in April 2006.

“This is one of the most exciting periods in bmi’s 70 year history,” said Nigel Turner. “We have just introduced 17 new destinations from Heathrow at the start of the winter timetable including a daily non-stop service to Cairo. We are also delighted to be announcing further developments which are marking our transition into a truly global airline. Next year bmi will be serving 41 destinations from London Heathrow.

“Over the past two years we have established a highly successful presence in the Saudi market and are very pleased to extend services to include Dammam, strengthening our position in the region. Dammam is major centre within the petroleum industry and is at the heart of key business and economic growth. This is the first of a number of new destinations which we are examining and we look forward to making further announcements soon.”

In the past week bmi has launched services to: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Aleppo, Syria; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Amman, Jordan; Ankara, Turkey; Baku, Azerbaijan; Beirut, Lebanon; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Cairo, Egypt; Dakar, Senegal; Damascus, Syria; Ekaterinburg, Russia; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Khartoum, Sudan; Tbilisi, Georgia; Tehran, Iran; Yerevan, Armenia.