UK low-cost carrier bmibaby is to cease its operations from Cardiff and Manchester airports this winter and will instead focus on developing its operations from Belfast City, Birmingham and East Midlands. The airline says that “in the current economic climate it is essential” for the carrier to focus on airports where it “already has a strong market presence and where there are strong growth opportunities” for the business.
It currently offers 24 weekly flights from Cardiff to Alicante, Belfast City, Faro, Geneva, Malaga, Murcia and Palma de Mallorca but will suspend these from the end of the Northern Summer schedules. This is a significant blow for the Welsh airport, with bmibaby the second largest airline there by capacity, accounting for 26.3 per cent of weekly seats. It carried an estimated 180,000 O&D passengers on its routes in 2010, around 13 per cent of the total handled by the airport. Over the past couple of years the airline has scaled-back its network from Cardiff and its management team say they are “disappointed, albeit surprised” by this week’s decision.
“Since 2006/7 when bmibaby accounted for 34 per cent of passenger volumes at Cardiff Airport we have seen that decline to less than 14 per cent in 2011, having a huge impact on overall passenger statistics,” it said in a statement, adding that it was now looking forward to “working with other airlines and other partners in order to facilitate increased opportunities going forward”.
From Manchester it offers more than 40 weekly flights to 12 destinations comprising Belfast City, Bordeaux, Geneva, Jersey, Knock, Lourdes/Tarbes, Lisbon, Newquay, Palma de Mallorca, Perpignan, Prague and Toulouse. Manchester is already linked to a number of these destinations. Flybe already serves Belfast City and Jersey; easyJet and Jet2 fly to Geneva, easyJet, Jet2, Monarch Airlines and Ryanair offer links to Palma; Jet2 has flights to Prague and TAP Portugal has recently launched a Lisbon service. However, the loss of the flights into the south of France will be area that it sure to look for alternate options.
The aircraft currently operating from these two bmibaby bases will be redeployed, according to the airline – one will be based at Birmingham, another at East Midlands and two at Belfast City. From East Midlands new winter routes will be added to Chambery (twice weekly) and Toulouse (weekly), popular gateways to the Soldeu, Arinsal, Les Trois Vallées and Val d’Isere ski resorts, and additional new services from both East Midlands and Birmingham for summer 2012 will be “announced soon”, according to the carrier.
From Belfast City bmibaby will launch flights to seven new destinations. This winter it will introduce a year-round, six times weekly service to Amsterdam and a seasonal twice weekly link to Geneva, while for summer 2012 it will add Alicante (three flights per week), Faro (twice a week), Ibiza (weekly), Malaga (three times weekly) and Palma de Mallorca (twice weekly) to its network. It will be the only low-cost airline to operate to these new destinations from Belfast City.
“We are committed to flying from Northern Ireland and will base two additional aircraft at Belfast City Airport in order to offer a more comprehensive flying programme,” said Julian Carr, Managing Director, bmibaby. “The new routes build on our recent launch of the Belfast City to Stansted service, and the relocation from Belfast International Airport to Belfast City Airport.” Alongside the London route and previously mentioned Cardiff and Manchester flights, bmibaby already serves Birmingham and East Midlands from Belfast City.
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NOTE: Schedule data extracted from Flightbase for week commencing April 14, 2011; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending January 2011.
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