bmibaby expands services from Birmingham Airport

LOW cost airline bmibaby is increasing the number of flights it operates from Birmingham Airport.

The airline is laying on three new flights as part of its 2012 summer schedule which will carry passengers to Lisbon, Fiumicino (Rome) and Barcelona.

The airline is also laying on four new services at East Midlands Airport, to Gibraltar, Corfu, Murcia and Naples.

In addition, bmibaby is launching year-round flights to Cologne from East Midlands Airport and to Prague from Birmingham Airport.

The new services are a boost to both airports as no other low cost airline operates flights from East Midlands to Cologne, Gibraltar and Naples and from Birmingham Airport to Barcelona, Lisbon, Prague and Fiumicino.

While Birmingham Airport is set to extend its runway to enable it to operate long-haul services to China and the West Coast of the United States, it is the short-haul sector which will continue to provide it with the bulk of its business.

bmibaby currently operates 14 flights out of the airport, together with 31 from its East Midlands neighbour.

The low cost airline will now operate 31 routes from East Midlands Airport and 14 routes from Birmingham Airport, offering an extensive and attractive network of European business and leisure destinations.

Martyn Lloyd, Birmingham Airport, air services development director, said: “This route expansion gives passengers in the Midlands an even greater choice of destinations from Birmingham, removing the need to take long car journeys outside of the region.

“We’ve invested £100m in the last few years to improve the passenger journey and just last week we opened our new terminal, providing a brand new duty free store, a more pleasant security environment and larger arrivals zone. We look forward to welcoming more passengers to Birmingham and launching these new destinations next summer.”  

Julian Carr, managing director, bmibaby, said: “The new routes are part of our expansion strategy for the Midlands.  We recently announced that will be basing two additional aircraft in the Midlands from the end of our summer 2011 flying programme and will now operate a total of 45 routes from the Midlands.  We are committed to further growth in this region.”