bmi to go wide-bodied on Heathrow to Cairo and Amman

bmi, London Heathrow’s second largest airline, is to give its Heathrow to Cairo and Amman routes a major boost with the introduction of Airbus A330 wide-bodied aircraft. The changes will come into effect early in spring 2009.

Both services were introduced in 2007 as part of a major route launch exercise at Heathrow that saw bmi commence services to 17 new destinations at the start of the winter 2007 programme. It was part of an ongoing bmi strategy to develop a wide range of mid haul and long haul routes from Heathrow.

Nigel Turner, chief executive officer of bmi, said: “Both Cairo and Amman have got off to excellent starts and are performing well ahead of expectations in passenger numbers and revenue. However, there exists even further potential for the development and growth of these routes. It was always our intention to upgrade the aircraft operating some mid haul services to a wide-bodied product and these routes in particular are ideally suited. We have every confidence that there will be significant benefits to be gained with the introduction of that upgrade.

“Passengers will benefit from the highest levels of service both on the ground and in the air, including inflight chefs and lie-flat beds for business travellers. This will considerably enhance our business class offering as well as well as ensuring we are delivering a highly competitive product. In providing a wide-bodied A330 aircraft on these routes we will also be providing a consistency of style of cabin for the many passengers that use these services to connect to and from long haul services at Heathrow.

“The introduction of a wide-bodied aircraft on to Cairo and Amman will also widen the choice available to travellers. They will be able take advantage of our premium economy product, which provides genuine business class seats in a separate cabin and a dedicated inflight team and highly competitive fares for the discerning traveller.

“By adding two further Airbus A330 wide-bodied aircraft at Heathrow to complement the existing aircraft based there also gives us greater flexibility to meet seasonal demand to some destinations, in particular on our Jeddah route. We will also be doubling the number of flights from Heathrow to Riyadh from 15 January next year to provide a daily service except for Fridays.”