Lufthansa-owned Bmi is to suspend several key routes from London Heathrow, including Amsterdam, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo, citing “unprecedented market conditions”.
The carrier’s flights to Amsterdam will end on March 27, 2010, leaving just BA and KLM on the route from Heathrow. BMI-operated flights from Heathrow to Brussels will end even earlier on January 9, 2010, although the airline will continue to offer a codeshare service to the city with Brussels Airlines (also owned by Lufthansa), which will take over the route. Routes from Heathrow to Tel Aviv (also served by BA as well as El Al) and Aleppo (not currently served by any other carrier) will also cease on January 9, while flights to Kiev will end on January 10 (leaving just BA on the route).
In addition Bmi’s service from Heathrow to Cairo will be swapped from an Airbus A330 to an A321 from April 2010, as the carrier ends its lease agreement on two A330 aircraft.
Bmi says that going forward the airline will “focus on routes serving oil, energy and emerging markets with a particular focus on Business Class customers and those visiting friends and relatives”.It added that owners Lufthansa is "committed to helping Bmi restructure the airline to return it to profitability".
For more information visit flybmi.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
