bmi to Offer Nice and Agadir Links from Heathrow

bmi British Midland International is to launch two new short-haul routes from London Heathrow in the coming three months and will further increase its activities in the Moroccan market. The UK carrier, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa, will introduce a new weekly link to Nice in the South France from August 25, increasing to double daily (except Sundays) from October 30, pitching it in direct competition with British Airways (BA). The UK carrier currently offers more than seven flights per day to Nice from London Heathrow as well as ten flights per week from London City, while easyJet also offers up to seven flights per day, albeit operating from a mix of London airports - Gatwick, Luton and Stansted.

An estimated 405,000 O&D passengers flew between London Heathrow and Nice last year and bmi will be confident that it can secure at least a 15 per cent share of the market during its first year of service by breaking the current BA monopoly. The airline is targeting both point-to-point leisure and business travellers as well as potential onward traffic from its London Heathrow base and will provide a two-class full service operation.

bmi will also add a third Moroccan city to its network following the success of the flights it introduced to Casablanca and Marrakech earlier this year; the latter route will see a frequency increase from three to five flights per week from August 1. The new destination for bmi is the southwest city of Agadir, which is not currently served from London Heathrow - easyJet and Ryanair do offer twice weekly flights from Gatwick and Stansted respectively, while charter carriers Thomson Airways and Thomas Cook Airlines also serve the city.

A twice weekly service will initially be offered by bmi from October 29 although it is already working to develop new growth opportunities for the future. “The addition of Agadir will enable us to meet the increasing demand from both corporate and leisure customers,” said Joerg Hennemann, Chief Commercial Officer, bmi British Midland International.

As the table above illustrates, bmi currently accounts for 10.6 per cent of the total weekly capacity between the UK and Morocco, a figure that will almost double once its new route and additional frequencies are introduced.

To support its continued network expansion bmi is having to make some cuts to its network, in this case on its London Heathrow – Berlin Tegel route which will see a reduction in daily capacity. The airline currently provides five flights per week but will reduce to four services from August 25 and down to just three rotations per week from October 30. The UK carrier boosted its presence on the route after its purchase by Lufthansa but has found it difficult to compete with British Airways, which offers six flights a day. easyJet also serves the London – Berlin market with flights from Gatwick and Luton to Schönefeld, while Ryanair has flights to the same Berlin airport from Stansted.