Moscow
 

From Flybmi.com today...............

bmi enters Russian Federation market with services to Moscow Domodedovo from London Heathrow

release date: 11/07/2006

- commercial agreement by bmi and Transaero will provide two daily return flights

Star Alliance carrier bmi and Russian Federation carrier Transaero will both launch daily return flights on 29th October at the start of the winter timetable period. The new services from Heathrow are part of a commercial agreement signed by the two carriers today (11th July) in London. This will double the number of return flights to Moscow Domodedovo from Heathrow to four round trips per day.

A commercial agreement between the two carriers was a condition of the designation of bmi to serve Moscow from London Heathrow, following the recent bilateral negotiation between the UK and Russian Federation Governments. Through the agreement both airlines will benefit from reciprocal codeshare and sales activities. This will allow bmi to offer onward connections in the Russian Federation on the services of Transaero from Moscow Domodedovo. Transaero will be able to offer connecting flights at Heathrow onto the extensive domestic, European and long haul network of bmi.

Nigel Turner, chief executive officer of bmi said “We have concluded a very constructive and mutually beneficial agreement with Transaero. This will allow us to enter an entirely new market and develop further our growing route network from Heathrow. We are determined to deliver to this market the best possible value for money, through the fares that they pay and the level of service they receive.”

Alexander Krinichansky, executive director of Transaero said “We are delighted that we have been able to conclude this agreement with bmi. With the launch of new competitive services from Heathrow by Transaero and Star Alliance member bmi, we see great potential for both point to point and connecting services. Jointly selling these new services in our respective countries will enable Transaero and bmi to benefit from the strength and reputation we enjoy in our home markets. We look forward to a long, meaningful working relationship through the implementation of our new agreement.”

ends

bmi note to editors

• bmi return fares, including taxes, start at:
£199.99 economy (BA £228.70; Aeroflot £203.60) *
£1,299 business (BA £1,618.70; Aeroflot £1,364.60) *
* fares correct at 7 July

• bmi schedule: (all times local) Airbus A320
Heathrow-Moscow Domodedovo BD891 Daily depart 0930 arrive 1620
Moscow Domodedovo-Heathrow BD894 Daily depart 1710 arrive 1805

• Heathrow to Moscow will be the first medium haul route for bmi. The airline has created an entirely new offering for business customers on the Airbus A320 aircraft that will operate this service. It will provide a far superior in-flight product than that offered by the competition.

• bmi will offer a new style business class seat with a 41 inch seat pitch (compared to British Airways 34 inch and Aeroflot 38 inch) - comfort normally associated with long haul travel. bmi will also add personal touches to the level of in-flight service delivery, similar to that offered on much longer journeys.

• the new air services agreement between the UK and Russian authorities was finalised at the last round of talks in March 2006, nine years after bmi first expressed interest in the route. The agreement allows bmi and Transaero to each operate 14 round trip services per week (i.e. double daily return). The only other UK airline permitted to operate the route is BA, which has a commercial agreement with Aeroflot, allowing each to operate up to 21 services per week.

Hmmm....any ideas on how this might work?

I guess this is a more logical place to discuss this, rather than the BA board.

A few more observations:

An inaccuracy - it will increase the number of LHR-DME flights from 3 (BA has 3 from October) to 5 (with the UN codeshare).

No timings of the UN codeshare flights. The BD timings are disappointing, within a few minutes of the BA 872/873. A mid-morning departure would be nice. Or a later afternoon one.

The headline fare may be £1200, but the booking site shows that the flexible business class fare is almost £1800 - I think that's slightly more than BA's, or possibly identical. Not much of an incentive to shift travel patterns.

No fares loaded yet ex-DME.

Keen to know what the seat will look like and what IFE there will be. That's BA's weakpoints on the tatty 767's it flies.

For Golds, this might be a good route on which to blow miles...20,000 plus £87 or 10,000 plus £157 gets you business class (or whatever this turns out to be) to Russia.

But at £199 for 3,170 miles it is pretty crap for earning.

The UN website also refers to giving BD customers access to its flights across Russia/the CIS/ and abroad. Does this imply UN will codeshare with BD on these flights?

The flights are loaded in amadeus. No sign of the UN timings though. Very disappointing schedule for BD's flight though.

Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom to Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation

British Airways
BA 872 Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom
Terminal 1 09:10
Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation 16:05
Non-stop
767 3h55min Daily

BMI
BD 891 Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom 09:30
Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation 16:20
Non-stop
320 3h50min Daily

British Airways
BA 874 Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom
Terminal 1 12:30
Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation 19:35
Non-stop
767 4h05min Daily

British Airways
BA 880 Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom
Terminal 1 21:45
Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation 04:35+1 day(s)
Non-stop
320 3h50min Daily


Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation to Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom.

British Airways
BA 881 Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation 05:50
Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom
Terminal 1 07:00
Non-stop
320 4h10min Daily

BMI
BD 894 Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation 17:10
Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom 18:05
Non-stop
320 3h55min Daily

British Airways
BA 873 Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation 17:30
Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom
Terminal 1 19:00
Non-stop
767 4h30min Daily

British Airways
BA 875 Domodedovo (DME), Moscow, Russian Federation 20:55
Heathrow (LHR), London, United Kingdom
Terminal 1 22:15
Non-stop
767 4h20min Daily

For aircraft utilization, the stated timings are likely the most efficient. However, what will this specially configured A320 do overnight? Will it sit at LHR?

I would expect the UN timings to be similar to the current, which are 10:10 AM ex-DME and 12:45 PM ex-LGW [to be LHR]. Including SU that would make three flights ex-LHR to Moscow around 1 PM, however, which is a significant amount of capacity. If the DME-LHR were around 2 PM and the return LHR-DME around 4 PM (arriving around 11 PM), they might be able to tap a new market niche. For UN the aircraft utilization might work with some of their flights to Kazakstan, Siberia, etc.

From the website:

Good to know. :D ;)

Excellent route for using for Gold upgrade vouchers which are gathering dusk in many desks ....

If only there was a LHR-DME 1600-2245 flight.
Now that would be a great time, and definitely a winner. At present there's nothing between 1300 and 2200 leaving LON.



It would make sense to do another "mid-haul" flight, eg. overnight to IST or ATH overnight, and back early morning. Are there are such destinations in the pipeline?

Anything in western Europe to/from MOW is generally a good mile-using opportunity even in Y on any airline, in light of prevailing fares. The cheapest available non-stop economy to/from London, Paris, Rome, Milan, etc. is often within $50 of a return fare to New York.

BD's A320 appears to travel faster, and be turned faster, than BA's 767s on the comparable schedules. While the A320 is smaller than a 767, I suspect that BD can not unload, service and load a full A320 at DME in the scheduled 50 minutes.

Also from the UN website -

UN offers business class passengers:
A possibility to enjoy the comfort of new seats during the flight (on board Boeings 737). Ergonomic, spacious seats upholstered in exclusively soft leather take comfort to a new level. The price of such a seat is comparable with the value of a Russian-made compact car.

What an odd comparison to make. :confused:

when BA first switched from SVO to DME it also had a tight turnaround and always seemed to leave at least half an hour late out of DME.

I suppose BD will learn the hard way - with de-icing to deal with as well 50 mins is totally inadequate.

Still, good to have another choice.

I notice on the website that these flights count as "long-haul" in the T&Cs. No mention of paid catering, then!

And if there is a reciprocal codeshare with UN, why isn't is coming up in any GDS?

True, and BD's headline fares look pretty encouraging. I can't see a cheaper direct option, although LX is coming in at £118 on some dates.