bmi announces new flights to Europe and North Africa
British Midland International (bmi) has announced 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 1 April 2011, and new services to Casablanca and Marrakech in Morocco.
Direct flights to Casablanca will operate four times per week from 2 April 2011, and flights to Marrakech will operate three times per week from London Heathrow from 1 April 2011.
The new routes will go on sale today (31 January 2011) at flybmi.com, with Economy fares starting from £99 to Stavanger, £99 to Bergen, £149 to Marrakech and £199 to Casablanca, all including taxes. The new services from Heathrow will be operated using an Airbus A319 and offer a full service Business Class and Economy cabin.
bmi will be the only airline to serve Bergen from Heathrow. This is great news for leisure travellers who want to visit the Norwegian Fjords and for business travellers. Stavanger enables customers to access the important oil and energy market in Norway.
In addition to the route expansion at Heathrow, bmi aircraft will fly on some Lufthansa services from Birmingham and Manchester to Frankfurt. From 27 March 2011 the bmi A320 family aircraft will be used on three of the four daily Lufthansa Services from both Birmingham and from Manchester. These services connect key business centres 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 to 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 a new service from Heathrow and from 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 co-operation 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 BAA in domestic passenger charges at London Heathrow by more than 50%, effective 1 April 2011, bmi will regrettably suspend its seven daily flights between London Heathrow and Glasgow, from 27 March 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 CAA 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 UK 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.