Originally Posted by bmi

19 February 2009

bmi to terminate Leeds Bradford and Durham Tees Valley to Heathrow services

- bmi regional services unaffected

bmi has today confirmed that it will be terminating its services to Heathrow from Leeds Bradford and Durham Tees Valley Airports. The last services will operate on 28 March 2009.

A decline in overall demand and higher-than-inflation cost increases at Heathrow mean the routes have become unsustainable and show no signs of that trend being reversed.

Peter Spencer, managing director of bmi, said: “A combination of factors means that we are unable to continue to provide viable services from these regional airports to Heathrow. There has been a small decline in the overall air market and whilst we have been able to address this to a degree with the introduction of smaller capacity aircraft and fewer flights, unless BAA, which owns and runs Heathrow, reverses its policy and pricing, we see little prospect of these routes ever being able to achieve an acceptable level of profitability.

“The operational efficiencies of the routes have been severely challenged with changes to charging structures and cost increases implemented by BAA at Heathrow deliberately targeted towards short haul flying. This has led to price increases to bmi that are way over the rate of inflation. All these factors coupled with the introduction of higher Government imposed APD (air passenger duty) charges for air travellers have increasingly marginalised those choosing to fly. This has reduced the competitiveness of air travel against other forms of transport such as Government subsidised rail travel.

“The fact is that due in the main to BAA’s inflation-busting increases and changes to its pricing structures that place a considerable disadvantage on short haul flights, travellers in the North of England are losing their important links to Heathrow. Instead of Heathrow they will now have to rely on European airports such as Amsterdam, Brussels and Frankfurt to connect to worldwide destinations. BAA, through its tactics, would appear to want to completely cut itself off from the UK regions. This is a strategy that will inevitably have a negative impact upon the economic growth and inward investment in those key areas.”

Passengers holding bookings for services after the route has been suspended will shortly be contacted by bmi to review alternative travel arrangements or refunds.

The closure of Leeds Bradford to Heathrow has no impact whatsoever on the services of bmi regional, with three Leeds Bradford Airport-based aircraft and crews providing regular services to a wide range of destinations including Brussels, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

As a result of the route terminations 33 operational staff are likely to be affected at Leeds Bradford and a further 19 staff at Durham Tees Valley. bmi has today commenced discussions with staff and union representatives with a view to minimising job losses. bmi is confident that because of redeployment opportunities the number of staff facing compulsory redundancy will be minimal.

bmi continues to develop the mid and long haul parts of its business from Heathrow. The airline will shortly be launching a new five times a week service to the Ukrainian capital Kiev as well as doubling the number of flights from Heathrow to Tel Aviv. To better compete with other airlines on existing routes bmi will introduce the wide bodied A330 aircraft onto the Tel Aviv and Cairo services. The airline continues to provide more competitive frequencies and additional capacity to routes such as Amman, Damascus and Beirut from Heathrow

ends