Rebranding BMI say hello to flybmi

The British airline BMI has rebranded itself as 'flybmi' and as part of that image change is a revamp of its website, to flybmi.com.

The airline says it wants to offer a more customer friendly platform, optimised for mobile usage and a  visually rich layout. The site is supposed to appeal to both the business and leisure markets, with improved functionality, refined navigation and a fresh look and feel.

At the heart of the website is a completely new booking engine developed by 2e Systems, one of the leading travel e-commerce solutions providers, based in Germany. The booking engine enables customers to move through the booking flow, comparing the pricing across flight times and dates, offering the full suite of flybmi’s range of retail products and also provides customers the ability to pay for their travel with various payment forms and currencies, irrespective of their point of origin.

BMI Heads for Expansion

Bmi regional will increase capacity across its network by 16% in summer 2015, announced yesterday.   The carrier revealed it was going to add 60,000 more seats to meet demand for scheduled services across the UK and mainland Europe.

Frequency increases on key routes, including an extra daily service between Aberdeen and Bristol, would deliver an extra 10,000 seats per month from March 29th in a “new phase of growth”. The airline said “Cities including Aberdeen, Bristol, Brussels, Frankfurt and Munich will benefit from the enhanced connectivity created through the move to triple daily flights and add weekend services.

Flights from Newcastle and East Midlands to Brussels will increase to three times daily, Monday to Friday. Bristol to Frankfurt will also operate three times daily, while the Bristol-Aberdeen route will also have three daily flights. Other changes will see the introduction of new weekend services from Bristol to Frankfurt and Munich.  Bmi regional chief executive Cathal O’Connell said: “Increasing our frequency and providing new services will contribute to an exciting period of growth for the airline.

BA may buy BMI

Lufthansa has said it is selling British Midland (BMI) to International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns British Airways and Iberia. No details have yet been given of how much will be paid for the loss-making carrier. The airlines said they hoped to sign a purchase agreement "in the coming weeks" and complete the deal before April 2012. 


The sale still has to be cleared by regulators. BMI, which is based in Castle Donington in Leicestershire, operates flights to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The key issue for regulators will be the extra take-off and landing slots at Heathrow Airport that BMI owns. 


 The acquisition would mean that IAG would have more than half of the landing slots at the UK's busiest airport. Virgin Atlantic, which said it had also made a bid for BMI, is likely to strongly oppose the deal. "British Airways' hold over Heathrow is already too dominant and we are very concerned - as the competition authorities should also be - that BA's purchase of BMI would be disastrous for consumer choice and competition," Virgin Atlantic said. Lufthansa bought the 50% of BMI owned by its then chairman Sir Michael Bishop in 2008, taking its holding to 80%.

Lufthansa talks to BA over BMI sale.

German airline Lufthansa is set to enter exclusive talks to sell loss-making carrier bmi by the end of the month, with arch rival IAG , the owner of British Airways, seen as the front-runner, sources said on Tuesday.

"The price won't be substantial, it's mainly about cleaning Lufthansa's balance sheet and getting rid of the debt," one source close to the sales process told Reuters.

Bmi has been a millstone around Lufthansa's neck and by putting it up for sale, the company has admitted efforts have stalled to turn around the unit, which reported losses of 154 million euros ($214.8 million) for the first nine months of 2011.