bmi has announced termination of 2 UK domestic routes effective 28th March 2009.

Less than 3 weeks ago bmi announced the termination of Heathrow – Jersey with the same last flight date.

Here is a summary of the changes to the bmi summer 2009 timetable :

• Heathrow to Leeds Bradford cancelled
• Heathrow to Teesside cancelled
• Heathrow to Dublin to be reduced by one daily flight
• Heathrow to Amsterdam to be reduced by three daily flights
• Heathrow to Aberdeen to continue but aircraft downgraded from Airbus to Embraers
• Heathrow to Brussels to continue but aircraft downgraded from Airbus to Embraers
• Four A32S to take on charter work
• Two A32S to be wet leased to Lufthansa for new routes from Heathrow to Berlin and Milan Malpensa

bmi managing director Peter Spencer blamed the decision on ‘a combination of factors’.

He said: “There has been a small decline in the overall air market and, while 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.”

Airline-News comment – it looks like pressure from Lufthansa has come to bear on bmi and they are already acting in a coordinated way. It’s quite close to departure to be making these decisions so it must have been a close call. There must be a large number of existing passengers, most likely the majority of whom will have booked connecting flights via Heathrow.

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