Showing posts with label flybmi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flybmi. Show all posts

15 June, 2019

Air Partner awarded managed services contract by Airbus

Air Partner Awarded Managed Services Contract by Airbus


Air Partner plc a global aviation services group that has been going since 1961, confirmed it had been awarded a three-year contract by Airbus, a leading aircraft manufacturer, for Managed Services.

Air Partner's Managed Services team provides a range of professional, technical and commercial expertise that is available around the clock, 365 days a year, enabling customers to maximise operational efficiencies.

As part of the contract, Air Partner will manage all operational and contractual requirements for Airbus' corporate shuttle flights, which are a vital link for the company's employees and contractors moving between Airbus factories in Chester, Bristol and Toulouse. For this, Air Partner will trade their good reputation by using the sister airline of bankrupted and asset stripped flyBMI, Loganair. Using two dedicated, 49-seat Embraer E145 regional jets. 

14 May, 2019

More new routes from Aberdeen with Loganair

Photo Loganair
The regional airline Loganair is continuing its expansion with more new routes from the North-East Scottish city of Aberdeen. 

On Sunday the airline started flights to London Southend Airport with one of the Embraer jets that were rapidly transferred to the company just before sister airline flybmi went into administration. The route to Southend is to be operated up to three times a day, six times a week with fares starting around £49.99 one way - including 20kgs luggage allowance.

Loganair will also be introducing up to three non-stop weekday services to Newcastle and up to three non-stop weekday services to Norwich from September 1st from the granite city. Non-stop Sunday services will also be offered on both routes.

Loganair already has strong operational bases in both Aberdeen and Norwich – a route which can be served with a strong level of resilience due to the availability of aircraft and engineering support at both ends – making the routes a natural fit in the Loganair network.  The new Loganair service will also offer early morning northbound flights from Norwich and later evening return flights from Aberdeen heading south.

01 May, 2019

Loganair launches routes between East Midlands, Brussels and Inverness

Photo Loganair
The Scottish regional airline owned by Airline Investments Limited, Loganair has announced it will commence scheduled services from East Midlands Airport, introducing two new routes to Brussels and Inverness, this autumn.

The Brussels route is scheduled to start on 2nd September with an early morning and afternoon rotation to Brussels between Monday and Thursday as well as afternoon services on Friday and Sunday. 

The flights will be operated by a 49-seat Embraer 145 jet aircraft, enjoying a flight-time of only 70 minutes and will offer a convenient gateway to Belgium’s capital city. Loganair says the timetable has been created to enable a full day’s business on the continent, departing at 06:50 before returning to the UK via a well-timed 19:00 service.

Photo flybmi
Previously the route was flown by the same aircraft, operated by flybmi, a sister airline of Loganair, also owned by Airline Investments Limited, which collapsed leaving hundreds stranded and debts of over £37 million, including over £3 million due in compensation to passengers for late and cancelled flights. Flybmi's aircraft and lucrative airport slots were transferred to Loganair to avoid them being sold by the administrators to pay some of the Flybmi creditors, which are likely to see less than 1% or what they are owed.

The loss-making Loganair, will also provide six flights per week between East Midlands and Inverness, in the North East of Scotland. 

Loganair fires up special Bergen to Shetland service for Up Helly Aa

Photo Loganair
 A special addition to Loganair’s winter schedule will link Shetland and Norway during Europe’s largest fire festival for the very first time.

The Scottish carrier is the sister airline of the collapsed FlyBMI and owned by the same firm, will introduce a service between Sumburgh and Bergen during Up Helly Aa, offering Shetland’s Norwegian neighbours a direct link to come and enjoy Shetland’s spectacular celebration of its Viking past.

The new flights will also offer Shetlander’s the chance to head to ‘the Gateway to the Fjords of Norway’ outside of the summer, presenting a new opportunity to enjoy western Norway’s unique winter experiences such as glacier hiking, northern lights chasing and cross-country skiing.

27 April, 2019

FlyBMI 'owed £37 million' when it collapsed.


The administrators of the collapsed UK regional airline FlyBMI say the firm owed £37 million at the time of its downfall. 

The airline operated thin slim routes between a number of UK secondary regional cities and key gateway destinations in Europe, including Brussels, Frankfurt and Munich. Whilst it was held in high regard by many business passengers, many of FlyBMI flights departed with less than half the seats sold. 

According to the administrators BDO, the airline was worried about Brexit, "The company was also becoming increasingly concerned about the potential impact of Brexit and the ability to conduct intra-European flying whilst operating under a UK Operators Certificate.".

19 February, 2019

Loganair favourite to take over flybmi's public service route between Derry and London Stansted


The British government has confirmed that a new contract for an airline to operate public service route between the City of Derry in Northern Ireland and London Stansted airport should be signed before the end of the week.

The Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani told MPs on Monday the government "expects services to resume swiftly".  Emergency talks started almost immediately after flybmi ceased all operations on Saturday evening. "The government recognises the importance of maintaining regional connectivity, that is why we fund a public service route from Derry/Londonderry to London which was recently extended from the 1 April 2019 for a further two years," Ghani told MPs.

Ghani said the local council had "the power to transfer the public service obligation contract to another airline for up to seven months to allow for a new procurement process to be conducted. - Subject to due diligence we expect the council to sign contracts and appoint an airline later this week and we are expecting services to resume swiftly," she said.

16 February, 2019

Flybmi cancels all flights and ceases operations


The British regional airline Flybmi has ceased all operations with immediate effect and is filing for administration, the firm announced today Saturday, February 16th. The company was based in the East Midlands and had a staff of some 376 employees, flying to 25 destinations with a fleet of around 17 aircraft. Last year the airline carried 522,000 passengers on 29,000 flights. 

The shock news has been blamed on three main factors - the high cost of fuel,  carbon costs and Brexit uncertainty.  Flights operated by flybmi served Aberdeen, Bristol, Brno, City of Derry, Dusseldorf, East Midlands, Esbjerg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Jonkoping, Karlstad, London Stansted, Lublin, Milan Bergamo, Munich, Newcastle, Norrkoping, Nuremberg, Oslo, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Rostock/Laage, Saarbrucken and Stavanger.

The company said it had been badly affected by rises in fuel and carbon costs and uncertainty over Brexit, in a statement posted on its website, "It is with a heavy heart that we have made this unavoidable announcement today. The airline has faced several difficulties, including recent spikes in fuel and carbon costs, the latter arising from the EU’s recent decision to exclude UK airlines from full participation in the Emissions Trading Scheme. These issues have undermined efforts to move the airline into profit. Current trading and future prospects have also been seriously affected by the uncertainty created by the Brexit process, which has led to our inability to secure valuable flying contracts in Europe and lack of confidence around bmi’s ability to continue flying between destinations in Europe. Additionally, our situation mirrors wider difficulties in the regional airline industry which have been well documented.

“Against this background, it has become impossible for the airline’s shareholders to continue their extensive programme of funding into the business, despite investment totalling over £40m in the last six years. We sincerely regret that this course of action has become the only option open to us, but the challenges, particularly those created by Brexit, have proven to be insurmountable.

“Our employees have worked extremely hard over the last few years and we would like to thank them for their dedication to the company, as well as all our loyal customers who have flown with us over the last 6 years."

28 January, 2019

Landing with the brakes on........FlyBmi EMB145 in the mud

On December 22nd last year an Embraer EMB-145EP, registration G-CKAG of FlyBMI operating a flight from Frankfurt to Bristol with three crew and twenty-two passengers onboard ran off the runway during landing and stuck in the mud.

The flight crew had arrived at Bristol early that morning and performed a flight to the German city which had been uneventful and were returning back to Bristol.  The two flight deck crew were made up of a pilot undergoing training who was both new to the airline and the aircraft type. He was qualified on SAAB 2000s with another operator and had completed 17 hours of flight time on the Embraer 145, this was his eighth sector.  The commander of the aircraft, the captain was 50-year-old company training captain with some 8,600 flying hours experience. 

The crew had expected to be in a holding pattern over Bristol for a short period of time, however, upon arrival, they were given clearance to land ahead of what had been expected. The landing checklist was interrupted a number of times by getting the latest weather and talking to air traffic controllers.

27 December, 2018

new route to Munich from Leeds Bradford for flybmi

UK regional airline flybmi has confirmed it will launch a daily service between Leeds Bradford Airport and Munich in Germany, from 8th April 2019. 

The new route provides business and leisure travellers in the North of England with a convenient link to Bavaria’s capital city; a key business destination and a cultural hotspot, ideal for short breaks.

Munich is also home to the annual Oktoberfest where millions of people flock each year to enjoy over two weeks of celebrations and beer drinking. In 2019, the festival takes place from the 21st September until 6th October.

Furthermore, Munich is a convenient gateway to the Alps, perfect for winter and summer sports and also The Romantic Road scenic route through southern Bavaria, which weaves through picturesque towns, medieval sites and Germany’s iconic Castles including Neuschwanstein Castle, commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

19 December, 2018

flybmi host Santa flight from City of Derry Airport


City of Derry Airport and flybmi teamed up to offer children from Ardnashee School & College a very special flight around the North West with Santa Claus.

Children and teachers from Ardnashee school arrived at the Airport on Wednesday 12th December 2018, where they were greeted by airport staff and flybmi crew ahead of their very special flight. Santa arrived shortly after 10am with gifts and treats for all the boys and girls.

Airport Manager for City of Derry Airport, Charlene Shongo stated “the airport was absolutely delighted to offer children from Ardnashee School & College a very unique and special experience with Santa from their local airport this Christmas. We wanted to give something back to the community where we work and live and to offer the children a very memorable and magical gift this Christmas. 

06 July, 2018

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.

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