BMI (airline) - History - BMI

BMI

British Midland launched a new corporate identity in 2001, rebranding the airline as BMI British Midland, officially British Midland International. Aircraft received a new livery of royal blue, white and a fading Union flag on the tail, along with the new BMI logotype. BMI introduced the Airbus A330 into the fleet, and announced new routes from Manchester to the United States. Further routes were planned, although the 1977 Bermuda II agreement meant the airline could not sell tickets on United Airlines flights, as had been planned.

The airline carried 7.5 million passengers during 2002. By 2005 the total had risen to 10.1 million, the third highest of any UK airline. In early 2006, the Association of European Airlines (AEA) reported a drop in passengers carried and load factors for BMI mainline and regional services (excluding Bmibaby) whilst reporting increased loads for other AEA members over the same period. Despite this drop in passenger figures, the BMI Group reported a pre-tax profit of £10 million for the year ending 31 December 2005.

BMI operated a service to Mumbai from London Heathrow between May 2005 until October 2006, after the UK and India concluded amendments to their bilateral air service agreement. Services to Riyadh followed, commencing on 1 September 2005, after British Airways ceased to serve Saudi Arabia earlier that year. BMI also launched a scheduled service to Moscow Domodedevo in co-operation with Transaero Airlines on 29 October 2006, which used a dedicated A320 aircraft (G-MIDO) with special seating for the service, including leather seats and a 40" seat pitch. In 2007 the airline launched non-stop services from its Heathrow hub to Cairo and Amman, raising the airline's profile in the Middle East significantly. BMI announced on 5 November 2008 that it would end all longhaul operations from Manchester Airport. The two Airbus A330 aircraft based there were moved to Heathrow.

In February 2007 BMI bought British Mediterranean Airways (BMED), a British Airways franchise partner, and as a result gained access to new markets in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia that were served by that carrier. As a condition of the sale, BMI sold BMED's Heathrow slots to British Airways for £30 million. The sale meant BMI had to reduce some existing flights to fit the former BMED flights into the schedule in 2009. BMED was fully integrated into BMI on 28 October 2007.

In November 2009, following the complete takeover of BMI by Lufthansa, the airline announced a restructuring of its mainline and regional operations in an effort to suspend loss-making routes and adjust capacity. The measures include a fleet reduction of nine aircraft from the mainline fleet (two of which were operated by BMI Regional) and the suspension of routes from London Heathrow to Amsterdam, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo in 2010. Seasonal routes from London Heathrow to Palma and Venice were discontinued as well. It was said that the restructuring could result in the loss of around 600 jobs – around 13 per cent of the airline's workforce.

On 12 January 2010 BMI announced that from 28 March they would reduce the number of flights between Dublin and London Heathrow from 6 to 4 per day due to the economic climate, which led to low consumer demand. This resulted in the closure of the Dublin base, which consisted of one plane and 33 cabin crew.

In April 2010 the carrier announced it would begin using the British Midland International name in full, whilst retaining the BMI logo and continuing to be known by those initials in the domestic market.