New BM Routes from BRS - HAJ, MXP, MUC
 

bmi Regional launched its three new routes from BRS today. I'll get some photos up when I get back, because this hotel WiFi is unbearable.

There was a fabulous German market laid out in front of Check-In at BRS, with representatives from each destination airport. I managed to nab a MUC lanyard and a bunch of packets of Gummi bears from the Munich stand. There was also food and bier, but I needed to get airside for speeches. Check-in at the check-in desk took about a minute. (Clearing security took about five minutes, three of which were trying to gently guide, help, then bypass, a pair of 'more mature' infrequent fliers).

BM have their own departure area setup in the Forward Coaching Lounge at BRS (previously used by CO as a secondary screening area for the EWR flight). It's got four gates, of which I suspect three will get used regularly for the three nearly simultaneous departures three times a day. There were bubbles, coffee and croissants laid on for passengers, and a very clever cake design.

Passengers for MXR and HAJ boarded, and Ian Woodley (Chairman, bmi regional) made a short speech before boarding MUC. (Loads looked good - about 30 passengers on each flight).

Quiet, productive, flight was only punctuated by the arrival of coffee and a chicken wrap, and an on-time arrival at MUC to an Apron position. We were given Lebkuchenherz as we got off, with 'bmi regional first flight bristol munich' on them. Bussed into T1, and out the other side without any hassle.

Really great new routes from BRS, along with FRA going double-daily for connection possibilities. Rumours of codeshares with LH circulated, which would be very very good news indeed for us Star Alliance fliers. Apparently BRS-BRU is also doing better of later, so maybe people have finally got tired of KL's endless tech problems?

That's really good to hear that loads were promising. Hope that they can make a real go of these.

New BM Routes from BRS - HAJ, MXP, MUC
 

Nice to see a full service airline coming back to BRS, it's something that's been lacking since BA pulled out of the regions some years ago.

Fingers crossed for connectivity and codeshares ASAP.

And thanks for posting this here as well ;)


cs

I really hope they get to getsome codeshares sealed. Won't do much for me, but just by nice to see BM keep doing it's thing for a while.

Liking the sound of this. Not much good to me being EDI based but nice to see the airline expanding. I will always have a soft spot for BMI-R so good to see BM hopefully doing well.

Nicely full on HAM-BRS this evening, with 30/37 seats taken. I think FRA drew up on the apron position next to us as we were disembarking, and there seemed to be a reasonable number of faces at windows on that one too. :D

In a few years time bmi Regional will be so successful they take over IAG :)

Jungle jets to Hong Kong and A380's (hastily repainted in bmi livery of course) on the important NWI - ABZ route.

Seriously I wish them the best for the future, nice to see the bmi livery keep flying and also some full service competition on the regional routes.

If London splits from the UK, BA can rename themselves (accurately) to London Airways, and bmi regional can drop the regional and become the country's national airline and flag carrier.

Sounds good to me.

Make London independent from the UK so that bmi can become the UK's national airline? I like it :D

Much more convincing than the arguments put forward in the Standard.

LH won't assign codeshares that liberally anymore, but has incorporated BM flights in pretty much any fare on routes that would benefit from BM feed.

What's LH's reticence towards codeshares? Is it because people get confused and react badly when their "Lufthansa" flight provides different levels of service to those expected.

(I'm avoiding mentioning 4U/LH confusion here, obviously).

The big benefit to having an LH code on the flights is that they'll become bookable through the LH website, which I'm figuring has a much much bigger audience than the BM website.

Without those LH codes, I find myself in the slightly odd situation of booking a BM+LH flight combination on opodo.co.uk (part owned by LH). :rolleyes:

Let's face it, do LH really know what they're doing? Still BM is treated like the odd child that nobody wants to be friends with :rolleyes:

On codeshares the marketing carrier pays a fixed amount, if you plate on the actual flight number the operating carrier gets a pro rated amount from the fare. So LH has to part with less cash when you book BRS-NRT via FRA. I'm sure they analysed how much BRS traffic is booked via the LH.com channel and how much via TA/OTA @:-)

BTW opodo is owned by Amadeus, which LH only has a minimal stake in...

I think BA made LH sign quite a few clauses in the BD sale contract regarding what they can and cannot do with remnants of the glorious bmi legacy. The current very tepid LH-BM affair probably reflects that ;)

It likely of no relevance to BM in this case, but its interesting to read that Lufthansa has recently had to agree to give rivals more access to connecting passengers over their Transtlantic Joint Venture with AC and UA.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fae2ad9a-c...#axzz2UEW8r3lG
http://business.financialpost.com/20...rust-approval/

I promised some photos from the BRS routes launch on 13MAY, and I *finally* got sorted to do it, so here they are.

:D