bmi British Midland International

A page exclusively for all you need to know about bmi British Midland International and its' subsidiaries including bmi Regional and bmibaby.

History

BMI Vickers Viscount at East Midlands Airport in an early livery.

The airline dates back to the formation of Derby Aviation Limited on 16 February 1949. Derby Aviation was a subsidiary of Air Schools Limited which had been formed in 1938 to train pilots for the RAF. In 1949, the company formed both Derby Aviation based at Burnaston near Derby and Wolverhampton Aviation based at Pendeford, near Wolverhampton offering ad-hoc charter and freight flights with De Havilland Dragon Rapides, as well as aircraft maintenance and brokerage.
Flying instruction ceased in 1953 with the start of scheduled flights from Derby and Wolverhampton to Jersey. When the first Douglas DC-3 arrived in 1955, Wolverhampton Aviation had been phased out and the company's sole base became Burnaston Airport. International services commenced in 1956 to Ostend and holiday flights to mainland Europe began. The company was also contracted by Rolls-Royce to transport aero engines to customers throughout the world. In 1959, the company changed its name to Derby Airways. Domestic scheduled flights within the United Kingdom were launched toward the end of the decade.


In the 1960s British Midland had its head office at 78 Buckingham Gate in the City of Westminster, London.

Airbus A319-100 takes off

BMA

British Midland Visount 813 operating a UK domestic flight in 1987

Two British Midland Douglas DC-9s at Teesside Airport in 1994.

On 1 October 1964, after buying the Manchester Airport based schedule and charter airline Mercury Airlines, the company changed its name to British Midland Airways (BMA) and moved operations from Burnaston to the recently opened East Midlands Airport. The corporate colours of blue and white were adopted at that time, with the introduction of the first turboprop aircraft, the Handley Page.
Minster Assets, a London-based investment and banking group, acquired the airline in 1968, and in 1969 promoted former Mercury ground handling manager Michael Bishop to become the company's General Manager. Bishop from this point forward drove the company with Domestic and European expansion continued apace, and in 1970 BMA entered the jet age with the introduction of the BAC 1-11, followed by the Boeing 707 in 1971. In 1972 Bishop became Managing Director, and agreed to withdraw the BAC 1-11s from service and lease the 707s to other airlines, as BMA concentrated on turboprops such as the Vickers Viscount which was operated from 1967 until the mid 1980s. Though the 707 fleet was increased, none operated for BMA on scheduled services, or charter services on their behalf until 1981, leased to other operators. The Douglas DC-9 gradually converted most of the airline's domestic and European service to jet operation with its introduction in 1976.

A British Midland Boeing 737-300 at Dublin airport in 1994.

In 1978, Minster Assets decided to sell the company. With the help of an entrepreneurial Californian dentist, Bishop raised £2.5million to lead the management buy-out, and was resultantly appointed Chairman: "I had to borrow the money from an American citizen. Most venture capitalists want a return of 40% to make up for all their other failures and they want an exit strategy." That year, British Midland and British Airways agreed to route swapping, resulting in: British Midland Airways relinquishing its continental routes from Birmingham to Brussels and Frankfurt; and BA handing over its routes from Liverpool to Heathrow, Belfast, Dublin, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Glasgow. Annual passenger numbers topped 1 million for the first time in 1979.
In 1981, an application to fly between Heathrow, Glasgow and Edinburgh was denied by the CAA. The ruling was overturned, however, after an appeal was lodged with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. With the introduction of these services, BMA and BA were now in direct competition. BMA, together with British & Commonwealth Shipping, formed Manx Airlines in 1982, and the following year BMA purchased a 75% stake in Glasgow-based airline Loganair.
In March 1987, Airlines of Britain Holdings (ABH) was formed to act as a holding company for British Midland and British Midland Aviation Services. ABH became British Midland in 1997 when it was de-merged as part of wide restructuring.

Old revised British Midland logo

A new colour scheme was unveiled in 1985. Aircraft were now painted in very dark blue, with a deep grey lower half of the fuselage and a red relief. At this time, the airline simply became British Midland, and a new logo of a stylised red BM crowned with a diamond shape appeared on the aircraft tailfins (see right). Airport lounges were introduced at UK hubs and the Diamond Club frequent flyer programme was launched. The charter market was abandoned and the 707 fleet withdrawn at this time.

Vickers Viscount 800 in 1981

In 1992, British Midland became the first airline to offer a vegetarian choice of in-flight meals on UK domestic services as well as one of the first airlines in Europe to do so. Towards the end of the 1990s, British Midland switched to Airbus and Embraer for its fleet renewal programme.

BMI

In 1999, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), a shareholder in British Midland since 1987, sold some of its stake to Lufthansa on the condition that British Midland joined the Star Alliance. BMI joined in 2000 and launched a new corporate identity in 2001. This involved the rebranding of the airline as BMI British Midland. The new identity features a brighter blue, the replacement of the grey with white and a fading Union Flag on the tail with "BMI" on it. In 2003, "British Midland" was dropped from the name and the airline is now referred to simply as BMI, although the legal name of the company remains British Midland Airways Limited. The new identity coincided with the launch of transatlantic services in 2001 to Washington, DC and Chicago from Manchester Airport using wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft. Services from Manchester to Las Vegas followed soon after.

Embraer ERJ 145 lands

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.
In 2007 the airline launched nonstop services from its Heathrow hub to Cairo and Amman, raising the airline's profile in the Middle East significantly.
The BMI Group carried 7.95 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 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, BMI group reported a pre-tax profit of £10 million for the year ending 31 December 2005.
In late 2006, BMI launched a scheduled service to Moscow Domodedevo in co-operation with Transaero on 29 October 2006 with a dedicated A320 (G-MIDO) with special seating for the service, including leather seats and a 40" seat pitch.
BMI announced on 5 November 2008 that it would end all longhaul operations from Manchester Airport. The 2 Airbus A330 aircraft based there were moved to Heathrow.
In April 2010, the airline announced that it would begin using the British Midland branding in its marketing for the first time since rebranding to BMI in 2001, although the airline will now be known as British Midland International.

Subsidiaries

In 2002, BMI set up a low-cost subsidiary Bmibaby using Boeing 737s which were displaced after BMI's fleet renewal programme favoured an all-Airbus fleet. Bmibaby now flies routes between major and secondary airports around Europe, but does not operate from Heathrow.

In January 2007, BMI bought British Mediterranean Airways, (BMED) a British Airways franchise partner, and as a result has gained access to new markets in Africa, Middle East and Central Asia that were served by the carrier. As part of the deal to buy BMED, BMI sold BMED's Heathrow slots to British Airways for £30 million. These are due to be handed over to British Airways in late 2008/2009. This means that they will have to reduce some of their other flights to fit the former BMED flights in to the schedule in 2009. BMED was fully integrated into BMI on 28 October 2007.

Restructuring

The bmi training centre at Stockley Park near London Heathrow Airport.

In November 2009, following the takeover of BMI by Lufthansa, the airline announced a restructing of both 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 are 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 will also be discontinued.
The restructuring may result in the loss of around 600 jobs, around 13% of the airline's workforce.
On 12 January 2010 BMI announced that from 28 March 2010 they will reduce the number of flights between Dublin and London Heathrow from 6 to 4 per day due to the current economic climate leading to low consumer demand. This will result in the closure of the Dublin base which consists of 1 plane and 33 cabin crew.

Ownership

In 1999, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), a shareholder in British Midland since 1987, sold some of its stake to Lufthansa on the condition that British Midland joined the Star Alliance. Lufthansa also agreed to underwrite any losses British Midland made, in return for a pre-packaged agreed purchase price deal of Bishop's 50% controlling stake, which it could call on at any point in the next ten years.  BMI joined in 2000 and launched a new corporate identity in 2001.

A bmi Airbus A330 at Manchester Airport. (2008)

Between 1999 and 2004, Lufthansa was looking to sell its share in the airline. Virgin Atlantic was the main airline hoping to buy the shares and then forming a merger of the two airlines. BMI was already Virgin's preferred feeder airline into Heathrow and a merger would bring together two well respected airlines with combined ticket sales of more than £2 billion, forming a powerful force in the aviation industry. Neither company would comment on the talks. BMI, headed by Sir Michael Bishop, is believed to have initiated the talks after it fell deep into the red following the September 11, 2001 attacks. A merger would give Virgin's Sir Richard Branson a far stronger base at Heathrow (where bmi has hundreds of valuable take-off and landing slots) to increase the competition with his rival British Airways.
The two airlines would have 17% of Heathrow slots against British Airways's 43%. British Airways was worried about the rivalry it would face if a merger went ahead, and considered the takeover of either BMI or Virgin Atlantic to stop the merger of the two airlines. British Airways concluded it would be easier to take over the smaller airline Virgin Atlantic. In 2004, talks of any merger of the three airlines stopped.
In late 2006 the airline again dismissed renewed speculation that Virgin Atlantic Airways was preparing to make a bid to acquire full control of BMI, despite Sir Richard Branson repeating in a radio interview that such a merger would be a logical business move.
In June 2007, SAS announced that it would sell its 20% stake to improve its own group profits. The airline commented that it was in early discussions with Lufthansa over such a sale.
In April 2008 Lufthansa announced plans to take over BMI. Lufthansa already own 30% minus 1 share of BMI and has an option to purchase shares from the 50% plus 1 share holding of chairman Sir Michael Bishop from December 2008 to June 2009.
On 28 October 2008, CEO Nigel Turner announced to staff via the company intranet that Lufthansa have agreed to exercise their option to purchase BMI with the deal expected to be completed in mid January 2009.
In a statement on 14 May 2009, the European Antitrust body approved the take over plans by Lufthansa clearing the way for the German flag carrier to become the controlling majority stakeholder in its British partner.
The statement said: "After examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it."
A Lufthansa speaker later announced that this has cleared one of the conditions for the take-over bid. She did however not reveal what the other condition was, simply stating that not all of the contractual agreements have been met and therefore the deal has not yet been finalised.
In June 2009 it was announced that Lufthansa is to buy the remaining stake in the airline from Michael Bishop for less than originally agreed upon. Due to landing rights issues the stake will tentatively be held by a Lufthansa controlled but British based LHBD Holding. Once new bilateral agreements are in place, Lufthansa will take direct control.

Fleet

As of January 2011, the BMI fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 7.1 years:

BMI fleet

Aircraft	In Service	Orders	Passengers			Notes
			C	Y	Total
Airbus A319-100	11	0	0 0	130 144	130 144	1 aircraft operated for Lufthansa
Airbus A320-200	7	0	22 20 0	102 108 156	124 128 156
Airbus A321-200	7	3	31	118	149
Airbus A330-200	2	0	42	156	198	1 aircraft on wet lease to Turkish Airlines
Boeing 757-200	1	0	28	132	160	Operated by Astraeus
Total	28	3

Fleet reduction

As a result of a restructuring of mainline operations announced in November 2009, in which BMI will suspend loss making routes and adjust capacity across the group, nine aircraft will be withdrawn from the airline's fleet in 2010.
The aircraft due to be withdrawn from the fleet are:

• 3 Airbus A320
• 2 Airbus A321
• 2 Embraer 145, part of the BMI Regional fleet.

Airbus A319-100

Airbus A320

Airbus A330-200

In-flight service

Economy class passengers travelling within Western Europe and within the United Kingdom to and from London Heathrow may use the airline's buy on board programme offering drinks and light snacks for purchase. Flights to and from Moscow, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia have free meal and drink service in all classes.

Diamond Club

Diamond Club is the frequent flyer programme of bmi. There are approximately 750,000 active Diamond Club members.

Benefits and membership levels

BMI Diamond Club has three membership levels: Blue, Silver and Gold.

Incidents and accidents

British Midland Canadair C-4 G-ALHG at Manchester 29 August 1965

• The Stockport Air Disaster: a Canadair C-4 aircraft owned by British Midland Airways, registration G-ALHG, and operating a holiday charter flight, crashed near the centre of Stockport, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom on 4 June 1967. 72 of the 84 aboard were killed in the accident; 12 were seriously injured.
• On 20 February 1969, Vickers Viscount G-AODG was damaged beyond economic repair when it landed short of the runway at East Midlands Airport. There were no casualties.
• On 20 March 1969, Vickers Viscount G-AVJA crashed on take-off at Ringway Airport, Manchester. Three of the four people on board were killed.
• On 22 January 1970, Vickers Viscount G-AWXI was damaged beyond economic repair at Heathrow Airport, London when an engine caught fire on take-off. A successful emergency landing was made at Heathrow.
• The Kegworth air disaster: on 8 January 1989 British Midland Flight 092, a Boeing 737-400 registered G-OBME, crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway just short of the runway of East Midlands Airport, Leicestershire. 47 people died out of 118 passengers.

Bmibaby


The airline was established on 24 January, 2002 and started operations on 22 March, 2002 with a flight between East Midlands and Málaga.
Continued expansion saw the airline open further bases at Cardiff in October 2002,  Manchester in May 2003,  Durham Tees Valley in October 2003 and Birmingham in January 2005.  Insufficient passenger numbers led to the closure of the Durham Tees Valley base in 2006.
On 1 March, 2007, the airline announced an initiative for business travellers with an 'only choose what you need' approach, allowing passengers the option to choose from a range of services such as ticket flexibility, executive lounge access and on-line check in, and only pay for the services they used. The company also announced that BMI's frequent flyers could now gain Diamond Club miles.

By 2007, Bmibaby had nine Boeing 737 aircraft based at Birmingham Airport, making it their biggest base, however in December 2008 the airline announced that it would be suspending five routes from the airport as a result of a reduction in the number of customers booking city-breaks.

Further cuts were announced in November 2009 when it was announced that the fleet would be reduced from 17 to 12 aircraft in 2010, with up to 158 jobs at risk of redundancy. Bmibaby currently have 14 aircraft ion the fleet as of January 2011.  The airline said the action was necessary to stem record losses and that it would focus on growth routes best fit for the business.

In September 2010, the BBC Watchdog TV programme exposed the company for charging customers for cabin baggage that was actually within their maximum advertised limits. The company had two different types of baggage gauge in use - one at check-in, but a narrower one at the gate. The company claims "few passengers were affected".

Information courtesy of Wikipedia.