BMI axes routes and staff

News at Heathrow 27/11/2009

Most airlines will increase their charges : 2009 : BA cabin crew to strike over Christmas

Further cuts possible

BMI have announced they will be reducing their routes and staff in order to cut its costs and help fight the effects the recession is having on its business. The routes it will cut include Heathrow to Brussels, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo in Syria by January 2010 and its Amsterdam route will go in March, flights to Palma and Vienna will not resume in the summer.

The cuts will affect hundreds of workers at Heathrow. BMI employs a further 1000 people at its headquarters in Castle Donnington. The three month consultation period has ended but the airline has not ruled out further staff cuts in the future.

The airline’s serviced routes will be cut which include those flying out of Heathrow and are seen to be the least profitable, BMI have said that their routes from East Midlands airport will not be affected. BMI was taken over last year by Lufthansa who will be contributing £95 million towards its finances this year. BMI will begin returning its A330 aircraft to leasing companies which will come as a blow to the airline which had hoped to be a rival carrier to British Airways as a long haul carrier.

The airline did warn that it might not be able to continue with its business next year unless it was able to raise an additional amount of £190 million. It will look at selling its landing slots at Heathrow which could bring in as much as £95b million. Bmi baby, the airlines low cost arm, has already announced that it will shed 25 per cent of its workforce with 158 jobs going.

Most airlines will increase their charges : 2009 : BA cabin crew to strike over Christmas

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