bmi Regional summer schedule gets underway
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bmi Regional continued to make strides in its regional airport strategy this week as its launched its new summer schedule with six new routes.
The carrier has launched flights from Bristol to Munich, Milan and Hannover as well as services from Birmingham to Toulouse, Gothenburg and Lyon.
With a total of 20 routes, (services also operating from Manchester, Edinburgh, East Midlands, Glasgow and Aberdeen), management at the airline is hoping its fresh start is a success following a hectic few months to ensure the carrier could take off.
The airline nearly made it into the scrapheap with bmibaby when International Airlines Group (IAG) purchased bmi but did not want the other two brands. Now owned independently, bmi Regional’s team is fully focused on the carrier’s own interests with a network connecting regional airports.
“We acquired an airline that was a subsidiary of bmi, which was a subsidiary of Lufthansa, with a strong Star Alliance influence,” said CEO Cathal O’Connell in London recently. “It has its own aircraft but seven of these were for other airlines and our network was flying into the Star Alliance hub so bmi Regional became a feeder service for its members. Now we have developed a network which tries to blend connections with our partners to another that serves point-to-point.”
The carrier is currently in the stages of finalising its first codeshare agreement and is looking into future partnerships with airlines, ancillary services and airports.
In the 20-week process up to its new launch, the airline’s management built its commercial structure from scratch and transferred the technology and support systems from the original bmi mainline operations. The airline has fully owned the bmi brand since 1 April and could change name if it wanted.
“We are assessing the name change and the option is available to us to drop ‘regional’,” said O’Connell. “Currently we look at bmi Regional as an airline with a 70-year history but going forward there is a lot of activity and chance to take opportunities and do things right.”
Its bookings ahead have been positive particularly for charter services where there were more bookings in January 2013 alone than the entire 12 months of 2012. It is also looking into a frequent flyer programme; revamped in-flight product and new brand campaigns.