bmi to cut Heathrow links to Durham Tees Valley and Leeds Bradford
18.02.09
bmi is eliminating an important part of its UK domestic network and is cutting capacity to continental Europe amid rising losses, the Financial Times reports. The moves will see bmi axe two of its mainline services between Heathrow and Leeds Bradford and Durham Tees Valley - a total of seven daily departures.
The airline will reduce the number of daily services between Heathrow and Dublin from seven to six, and between Heathrow and Amsterdam from seven to four. Capacity - but not flight frequency - is also being cut on the Heathrow to Aberdeen and Brussels routes by using small regional jets in place of the existing larger Airbus aircraft.
The newspaper says that heavy pressure to staunch losses is coming from Germany's Lufthansa, which is due to complete its purchase of a majority 80 % stake in the UK airline next month. Some BMI jets are to be leased out to Lufthansa.
Nigel Turner, bmi chief executive, is expected to tell the 5,000 staff trading conditions have deteriorated further in recent weeks. The group is being hit by a sharp reduction in both business and leisure traffic, and is being forced to take action to eliminate loss making routes and cut capacity.
BMI is removing about four aircraft or 12 percent of its mainline short-haul fleet of 32 Airbus A320 family jets, which are to be used in charter rather than scheduled service. Two of the Airbus fleet are to be leased to Lufthansa together with bmi pilots and cabin crew, and will be operated on the German airline's planned new route between Milan Malpensa and Heathrow, and Berlin and Heathrow.
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