British Midland International

BMI

IATA ICAO Callsign BD BMA MIDLAND
Founded	1949 (as Derby Aviation Limited)
Hubs	London Heathrow Airport
Frequent-flyer program	Diamond Club
Alliance	Star Alliance
Fleet size	33 (+4 orders)
Destinations	51 (incl. BMI Regional)
Parent company	Deutsche Lufthansa AG
Headquarters	Donington Hall, Castle Donington, England
Key people	Nigel Turner (CEO)
Website	http://www.flybmi.com

British Midland Airways Limited (styled as bmi, and formerly operating as British Midland), is a scheduled airline based in Donington Hall in Castle Donington, England, United Kingdom, close to East Midlands Airport. The airline flies to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia while its operational base is London Heathrow Airport where it holds 11% of all take off and landing slots and operates over 2,000 flights a week. In January 2007, BMI bought British Mediterranean Airways which has enabled it to serve a wider range of mid-haul destinations.

British Midland Airways Limited holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence. It is permitted to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

On 29 October 2008, Lufthansa announced that it was acquiring share (50% + 1 vote) of BMI for around €318 million, giving it an 80% shareholding, the deal expected to close in January 2009 (the other shareholder being Scandinavian Airlines). The merger was delayed while the European Commission considered the effect on competition but was approved on 14 May 2009.

In June of 2009 it was announced that Lufthansa is to buy the remaing stake in the airline from Michael Bishop's for less than orginally agreed. Due to landing rights issues the stake will tentatively be held by a Lufthansa-controlled but British-based LHBD Holding. Once new bilateral agreements are in place, Lufthansa will take direct control.

History

The airline dates back to the formation of Derby Aviation Limited on the 16 February 1949. Derby Aviation was a subsidiary of Air Schools Limited which had been formed in 1938 to train pilots for the RAF. In 1949, the company formed both Derby Aviation based at Burnaston near Derby and Wolverhampton Aviation based at Pendeford, near Wolverhampton offering ad-hoc charter and freight flights with De Havilland Dragon Rapides, as well as aircraft maintenance and brokerage.

Flying instruction ceased in 1953 with the start of scheduled flights from Derby and Wolverhampton to Jersey. When the first Douglas DC-3 arrived in 1955, Wolverhampton Aviation had been phased out and the company's sole base became Burnaston Airport. International services commenced in 1956 to Ostend and holiday flights to mainland Europe began. The company was also contracted by Rolls-Royce to transport aero engines to customers throughout the world. In 1959, the company changed its name to Derby Airways. Domestic scheduled flights within the United Kingdom were launched toward the end of the decade.

Airbus A319-100 takes off

BMA

On 1 October 1964, after buying the Manchester Airport based schedule and charter airline Mercury Airlines, the company changed its name to British Midland Airways (BMA) and moved operations from Burnaston to the recently opened East Midlands Airport. The corporate colours of blue and white were adopted at that time, with the introduction of the first turboprop aircraft, the Handley Page Herald.

Minster Assets, a London-based investment and banking group, acquired the airline in 1968, and in 1969 promoted former Mercury ground handling manager Michael Bishop to become the company's General Manager. Bishop from this point forward drove the company with Domestic and European expansion continued apace, and in 1970 BMA entered the jet age with the introduction of the BAC 1-11, followed by the Boeing 707 in 1971. In 1972 Bishop became Managing Director, and agreed to withdraw the BAC 1-11s from service and lease the 707s to other airlines, as BMA concentrated on turboprops such as the Vickers Viscount which was operated from 1967 until the mid 1980s. Though the 707 fleet was increased, none operated for BMA on scheduled services, or charter services on their behalf until 1981, leased to other operators. The Douglas DC-9 gradually converted most of the airline's domestic and European service to jet operation with its introduction in 1976.

Airbus A320-200 lands

In 1978, Minster Assets decided to sell the company. With the help of an entrepreneurial Californian dentist, Bishop raised £2.5million to lead the management buy-out, and was resultantly appointed Chairman: "I had to borrow the money from an American citizen. Most venture capitalists want a return of 40% to make up for all their other failures and they want an exit strategy." That year, British Midland and British Airways agreed to route swapping, resulting in: British Midland Airways relinquishing its continental routes from Birmingham to Brussels and Frankfurt; and BA handing over its routes from Liverpool to Heathrow, Belfast, Dublin, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Glasgow. Annual passenger numbers topped 1 million for the first time in 1979.

In 1981, an application to fly between Heathrow, Glasgow and Edinburgh was denied by the CAA. The ruling was overturned, however, after an appeal was lodged with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. With the introduction of these services, BMA and BA were now in direct competition. BMA, together with British & Commonwealth Shipping, formed Manx Airlines in 1982, and the following year BMA purchased a 75% stake in Glasgow-based airline Loganair.

On December 24, 1982, British Midland Airways acquired the airplane Douglas DC-9-15 (PH-DNB c/n 45719) from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The plane was first flown on December 16, 1965 and BMA registered it in the UK on February 1, 1983 as G-BMAG with the name Nassak Diamond. BMA flew the plane until March 22, 1995 and subsequently leased it to Intercontinental of Columbia and then sold the plane to TEASA of Mexico, where it was scrapped in 2002/2003.

In March 1987, Airlines of Britain Holdings (ABH) was formed to act as a holding company for British Midland and British Midland Aviation Services. ABH became British Midland in 1997 when it was de-merged as part of wide restructuring.

Old revised British Midland logo

A new colour scheme was unveiled in 1985. Aircraft were now painted in very dark blue, with a deep grey lower half of the fuselage and a red relief. At this time, the airline simply became British Midland, and a new logo of a stylised red BM crowned with a diamond shape appeared on the aircraft tailfins (see right). Airport lounges were introduced at UK hubs and the Diamond Club frequent flyer programme was launched. The charter market was abandoned and the 707 fleet withdrawn at this time.

In 1992, British Midland became the first airline to offer a vegetarian choice of in-flight meals on UK domestic services as well as one of the first airlines in Europe to do so. Towards the end of the 1990s, British Midland switched to Airbus and Embraer for its fleet renewal programme.

BMI

Embraer ERJ 145 lands

In 1999, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), a shareholder in British Midland since 1987, sold some of its stake to Lufthansa on the condition that British Midland joined the Star Alliance. BMI joined in 2000 and launched a new corporate identity in 2001. This involved the rebranding of the airline as BMI British Midland (though BMI officially does not mean anything, it would imply 'British Midland International' or 'British Midland'). The new identity features a brighter blue, the replacement of the grey with white and a fading Union Jack flag on the tail with "BMI" on it. In 2003, "British Midland" was dropped from the name and the airline is now referred to simply as BMI, although the legal name of the company remains British Midland Airways Limited. The new identity coincided with the launch of transatlantic services in 2001 to Washington, DC and Chicago from Manchester Airport using wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft. Services from Manchester to Las Vegas followed soon after.

BMI operated a service to Mumbai from London Heathrow between May 2005 until October 2006, after the UK and India concluded amendments to their bilateral air service agreement. Services to Riyadh followed, commencing on 1 September 2005 after British Airways ceased to serve Saudi Arabia earlier that year.

In 2007 the airline launched nonstop services from its Heathrow hub to Cairo and Amman, raising the airline's profile in the Middle East significantly.

The BMI Group carried 7.95 million passengers during 2002. By 2005, the total had risen to 10.1 million, the third highest of any UK airline. In early 2006, the Association of European Airlines reported a drop in passengers carried and load factors for BMI mainline and regional services (excluding Bmibaby) whilst reporting increased loads for other AEA members over the same period. Despite this drop in passenger figures, BMI group reported a pre-tax profit of £10 million for the year ending 31 December 2005.

In late 2006, BMI launched a scheduled service to Moscow Domodedevo in co-operation with Transaero on 29 October 2006 with a dedicated A320 (G-MIDO) with special seating for the service, including leather seats and a 40" seat pitch.

BMI announced on 5 November 2008 that it would end all longhaul operations from Manchester Airport. The 2 Airbus A330 aircraft based there were moved to Heathrow.

Subsidiaries

See also: BMI Regional

In 2002, BMI set up a low-cost subsidiary Bmibaby using Boeing 737s which were displaced after BMI's fleet renewal programme favoured an all-Airbus fleet. Bmibaby now flies routes between major and secondary airports around Europe, but does not operate from Heathrow.

In January 2007, BMI bought British Mediterranean Airways, (BMED) a British Airways franchise partner, and as a result has gained access to new markets in Africa, Middle East and Central Asia that were served by the carrier. As part of the deal to buy BMED, BMI sold BMED's Heathrow slots to British Airways for £30 million. These are due to be handed over to British Airways in late 2008/2009. This means that they will have to reduce some of their other flights to fit the former BMED flights in to the schedule in 2009. BMED was fully integrated into BMI on 28 October 2007.

Diamond Club

Diamond Club is the frequent flyer program of bmi. There are approximately 750,000 active Diamond Club members .

Diamond Club partners

Diamond Club members can earn status and destinations miles from partners .

Airline partners

• bmi
• Star Alliance Airlines
• Other partner airlines:
  • bmibaby
  • Qatar Airways
  • Transaero Airlines
  • Virgin Atlantic

Hotel Partners

bmi Diamond Club members can earn destinations miles when the book hotels on bmi website. They also can earn 1000 more destinations miles on those hotels (even when they do not book them on bmi website):

• Hilton Family Hotels
• Jurys-Doyle
• Radisson SAS
• Radisson Edwardian
• Taj Hotels
• Park Inn
• Regent hotels

Other Partners

bmi Diamond Club members can also earn destinations miles from the following partners:

• American Express:
  • bmi American Express® Card
  • bmi plus American Express® Card
  • American Express Membership Rewards Programme
• BAA WorldPoints
• NCP Airport and Valet Parking
• Online shopping partners
• Hertz

Membership Levels

bmi Diamond Club has four membership levels: Blue, Blue Plus, Silver and Gold. When gaining a higher status, the original number of status miles restarts, as well as the membership year.

Blue membership

Blue membership is the lowest membership level of bmi Diamond Club. The Blue membership benefits are :

• Earning status miles from flights operated by bmi or by any other Star Alliance airline.
• Earning destinations miles from flights operated by bmi, by other Star Alliance airline, or by any other Airline Partner.
• Earning destinations miles from hotels, car rentals, shopping, parking and credit card partners.
• Spending miles on flights, hotels, car rentals and gifts.

Blue Plus membership

Blue Plus membership is the 2^nd lowest membership level of bmi Diamond Club. In order to gain or re-gain that status the members will have to earn 3000 status miles within their membership year. The Blue Plus card holders are entitled to all of the benefits of the Blue membership, as well as the following benefits :

• Free catering onboard shorthaul flights
• Return check-in option when the return flight is within 24 hours of the outbound flight.

Silver membership

The Silver membership is the middle membership level of bmi Diamond Club. In order to gain or re-gain that status the members will have to earn 16000 status miles within their membership year. The Silver card holders are entitled to all of the benefits of the Blue and Blue Plus membership, as well as the following benefits :

• Star Alliance Silver membership:
  • Priority reservations waitlisting (on all bmi and Star Alliance operated flights).
  • Priority airport stand-by (on all bmi and Star Alliance operated flights).
• Access to lounges when flying with bmi (expect when flting on economy saver fare).
• Bonus of 25% destinations miles for all flights operated by bmi, by Star Alliance airlines or by other airline partners.
• Priority check-in for bmi operated flights.
• 20KG additional buggage alloance.
• Dedicated Silver card enquiry line for bookings or enquiries.
• An upgrade voucher for Hertz car hire.
• Guaranteed Business class booking 48 hours in advance on bmi operated flights, even if the flight is full (excludes longhaul flights and Leeds Bradford to Glasgow and Edinburgh and bmibaby flights).
• Use of bmi manned check-in desks regardless of fare and destination.
• When a Silver member doesn't gain enought status miles for requalifing Silver status within his membership year, his membership level will be downgraded to Blue Plus even if he earned less than 3000 status miles in his membership year.

Gold membership

The Gold membership is the highest membership level of bmi Diamond Club. In order to gain or re-gain that status the members will have to earn 38000 status miles within their membership year. The Gold card holders are entitled to all of the benefits of the Blue, Blue Plus and Silver membership, as well as the following benefits :

• Star Alliance Gold membership:
  • Priority reservations waitlisting
  • Priority airport stand-by
  • Priority boarding
  • Priority airport check-in
  • Priority baggage handling
  • Additional checked luggage allowance of 20 kg (or one extra piece where the piece concept applies)
  • Airport lounge access to designated Star Alliance Gold lounges on the day and at the place of departure, on presentation of a valid Star Alliance boarding pass.
  • Preferred seating (on some airlines)
  • Guaranteed seating on fully booked flights on some airlines (subject to the booking class code and notice period)
• Access to Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse when flying with them out of London Heathrow Airport terminal 3.
• Bonus of 35% destinations miles for all flights operated by bmi.
• Bonus of 25% destinations miles for all flights operated by Star Alliance airlines or by other airline partners.
• A dedicated Gold card enquiry line for bookings, enquiries and requests.
• Four upgrade vouchers for use on a bmi flight.
• Four double upgrade vouchers for Hertz car hire.
• Business class award for the price of Economy award to shorthaul and midhaul destinations.
• Premium Economy class award for the price of Economy award to Tel Aviv and Cairo.
• Lifetime Gold membership if the member earned Gold Diamond Club status for 10 consecutive years.
• When a Gold member doesn't gain enought status miles for requalifing Gold status within his membership year, his membership level will be downgraded to Silver even if he earned less than 16000 status miles in his membership year.
• Gold members with over 55,000 membership status miles can buy a Silver Diamond Club card for a friend or colleague for 16000 destinations miles.
• Gold members with over 55,000 membership status miles will have any miles over this amount converted to destinations miles up to a maximum of 250,000 destinations miles.

Ownership

In 1999, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), a shareholder in British Midland since 1987, sold some of its stake to Lufthansa on the condition that British Midland joined the Star Alliance. Lufthansa also agreed to underwrite any losses British Midland made, in return for a pre-packaged agreed purchase price deal of Bishop's 50% controlling stake, which it could call on at any point in the next ten years. BMI joined in 2000 and launched a new corporate identity in 2001.

Between 1999 and 2004, Lufthansa was looking to sell its share in the airline. Virgin Atlantic was the main airline hoping to buy the shares and then forming a merger of the two airlines. A merger would bring together two well respected airlines with combined ticket sales of more than £2 billion, forming a powerful force in the aviation industry. Neither company would comment on the talks. BMI, headed by Sir Michael Bishop, is believed to have initiated the talks after it fell deep into the red following the September 11, 2001 attacks. A merger would give Virgin's Sir Richard Branson a far stronger base at Heathrow (where bmi has hundreds of valuable take-off and landing slots) to increase the competition with his rival British Airways.

The two airlines would have 17% of Heathrow slots against British Airways's 43%. British Airways was worried about the rivalry it would face if a merger went ahead, and considered the takeover of either BMI or Virgin Atlantic to stop the merger of the two airlines. British Airways concluded it would be easier to take over the smaller airline Virgin Atlantic. In 2004, talks of any merger of the three airlines stopped.

In late 2006 the airline again dismissed renewed speculation that Virgin Atlantic Airways was preparing to make a bid to acquire full control of BMI, despite Sir Richard Branson repeating in a radio interview that such a merger would be a logical business move .

In June 2007, SAS announced that it would sell its 20% stake to improve its own group profits. The airline commented that it was in early discussions with Lufthansa over such a sale.

In April 2008 Lufthansa announced plans to take over BMI. Lufthansa already own 30% minus 1 share of BMI and has an option to purchase shares from the 50% plus 1 share holding of chairman Sir Michael Bishop from December 2008 to June 2009.

On 28 October 2008, CEO Nigel Turner announced to staff via the company intranet that Lufthansa have agreed to exercise their option to purchase BMI with the deal expected to be completed in mid January 2009.

In a statement on 14 May 2009, the European Antitrust body approved the take over plans by Lufthansa clearing the way for the German flag carrier to become the controlling majority stakeholder in its British partner.

The statement said: "After examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it."

A Lufthansa speaker later announced that this has cleared one of the conditions for the take-over bid. She did however not reveal what the other condition was, simply stating that not all of the contractual agreements have been met and therefore the deal has not yet been finalised.

In June of 2009 it was announced that Lufthansa is to buy the remaing stake in the airline from Michael Bishop's for less than orginally agreed upon. Due to landing rights issues the stake will tentatively be held by a Lufthansa controlled but British based LHBD Holding. Once new bilateral agreements are in place, Lufthansa will take direct control.

Destinations

Main article: BMI destinations

Fleet

The BMI fleet consists of the following aircraft, at July 2009:

BMI Fleet

Aircraft	Total	Passengers (The Business/*Premium Economy/Economy)	Routes
Airbus A319	11	130 (0/130) 144 (0/144) 123 (30/93)	Short haul
Airbus A320	10	156 (0/156) 149 (30/119)	Short and medium haul
Airbus A321	8 (4 orders)	195 (0/195) 188 (25/163)	Short and medium haul
Airbus A330-200	3	G-WWBM/BB = 218 (18/*30/170) Saudi Arabia G-WWBD = 198 (42/156) Business and Economy	Medium and long haul
Boeing 757-200	1	160 (28/132)	Medium haul; operated by Astraeus
Total	33 (4 orders)

^{*Premium Economy is only available on A330-200 flights to Cairo and Tel Aviv}

The average age of the BMI fleet, including aircraft operated by BMI Regional, is 7.0 years at July 2009.

On 10 July 2007, BMI ordered 5 A330-200 and 5 A321 aircraft from Airbus, however the orders for the A330s have since been postponed due to lack of engine compatibility in the market.

Codeshare agreements

BMI has codeshare agreements with the following airlines as of December 2008:

Air Canada Air France Air Malta Air New Zealand ANA Austrian Airlines Blue1 British Airways for flights previously operated by BMED Brussels Airlines EgyptAir

Etihad Airways Ethiopian Airlines Gulf Air LOT Polish Airlines Lufthansa Malaysia Airlines Qatar Airways Royal Brunei Airlines SAS South African Airways

Spanair Sri Lankan Airlines TAP Portugal Thai Airways International Transaero United US Airways Virgin Atlantic

Note: This list includes Star Alliance partners.

In-flight service

Economy class passengers travelling within Western Europe and within the United Kingdom to and from London Heathrow may use the airline's buy on board programme offering drinks, snacks, and sandwiches for purchase. Gold, Silver, and Blue Plus Diamond Club members may have a selection for free. Business class flights have free refreshments. Flights to and from Moscow, Eastern Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia have free meal and drink service in all classes.

Incidents and accidents

British Midland Canadair C-4 G-ALHG at Manchester 29 August 1965

• The Stockport Air Disaster: a Canadair C-4 aircraft owned by British Midland Airways, registration G-ALHG, and operating a holiday charter flight, crashed near the centre of Stockport, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom on 4 June 1967. 72 of the 84 aboard were killed in the accident; 12 were seriously injured.
• The Kegworth air disaster: on 8 January 1989 British Midland Flight 092, a Boeing 737-400 registered G-OBME, crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway just short of the runway of East Midlands Airport, Leicestershire. 47 people died out of 118 passengers.

Gallery

• 
  Airbus A320-200 in interim colours
• 
  Airbus A321 in interim colours
• 
  Airbus A319-100
• 
  Airbus A319-100
• 
  Airbus A320
• 
  Airbus A330-200
• 
  Beech Baron (crew ferry)

External links

• BMI official website
• Voyager official website