About
British Midland Regional Limited (trading as Flybmi) is a British regional airline that operates scheduled passenger services across the UK and Europe.
The airline's head office is in East Midlands Airport in North West Leicestershire, with its registered office and operations control located at Aberdeen Airport.
The airline has operating bases at Aberdeen, Bristol, Chester Hawarden, East Midlands and Newcastle. In November 2017, BMI Regional celebrated five years as an independent carrier earlier this year, and this week the airline held a celebratory breakfast at the German Gymnasium in London, just across from St. Pancras station.
November 2012 was bmi regional’s first month operating as a fully independent airline, after having been sold by British Airways’ parent group IAG. The carrier currently has a mixed fleet of 20 ERJ 135s and ERJ 145s, with it having units based in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Derry, Karlstad, Munich and Newcastle.
In total the airline serves 31 scheduled destinations this winter according to OAG schedules (46 destinations including codeshares) across 11 European countries on 28 routes this winter. “We currently codeshare with Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, Loganair – our new sister company – and Air Dolomiti,” comments Jochen Schnadt, CCO of bmi regional.
The strategy of the airline in the past five years has been devoted to linking secondary business communities throughout Europe to major hubs and directly linking key emerging regions in Europe together. “We look at inter-regional connectivity and see the opportunities that need taking.”
News
31st May 2018
BMI Regional suspends Southampton-Munich flights
Airline BMI Regional has announced it is cancelling its flights from Southampton Airport to Germany, two years after the route was launched.
It said flights would remain suspended until further notice for a "period of recruitment and training".
The airline began flying to Munich from Southampton in April 2016 with twice-daily weekday and daily weekend flights.
Southampton Airport said the withdrawal of the route was "regrettable".
At its launch, the airport said it hoped to attract business users and cruise ship passengers using the port of Southampton.
Southampton Airport's head of operations, Neil Garwood, said: "Unfortunately due to a combination of airline issues BMI regional were not able to continue with the Munich flights, which is regrettable as it was proving to be a popular destination. We hope to see BMI Regional back at Southampton Airport in the future."
A statement from the airline said: "While it undergoes a period of recruitment and training, the airline has made the decision to reduce its flying schedule in order to minimise disruption to passengers across the network."
It said passengers already booked on flights would be offered refunds.
8th March 2018
Additional flights on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, starting 14 May 2018
bmi has announced it will be expanding the Paris CDG service from its Bristol hub, with increased frequencies starting from 14 May 2018.
The airline currently flies twice daily between Bristol and Paris but, in response to demand from customers, will be adding a further flight three times a week - on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
22nd January 2018
bmi regional boosts Bristol business links
bmi regional and Bristol celebrated the launch of direct flights to Gothenburg on 22 January, with this becoming the regional carrier’s ninth route from the UK city, with it joining existing links to Aberdeen, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Milan Malpensa, Munich and Paris CDG. Gothenburg becomes Bristol’s second Swedish connection after Stockholm Arlanda (hub for Nextjet), a route that was inaugurated by easyJet towards the start of W17/18.
bmi regional added a twice-weekly (Mondays and Thursdays) service from Bristol (BRS) to Gothenburg (GOT) on 22 January. The 1,188-kilometre sector, operated by the carrier’s 49-seat ERJ 145s, becomes the regional airline’s ninth route from the UK airport. bmi regional now offers over 3,700 weekly seats from Bristol, second only to its operation at Munich, where the carrier flies in excess of 4,000 weekly seats according to OAG schedules for the week commencing 22 January. Incidentally, the airline flies between Bristol and Munich. There is no competition on this new city pair between the UK and Sweden, with this becoming the airline’s second route to Gothenburg as it already flies to the Swedish city from Birmingham. Along with bmi regional linking Bristol to Sweden, LCC easyJet flies from the UK airport to Stockholm Arlanda.
21st December 2017
bmi Regional keeps it niche and to the point
bmi Regional is planning to spread its wings with an expanding repertoire of routes in niche European destinations. The airline's Jochen Schnadt talks possible future partnerships, aircraft orders and avoiding Brexit chaos.
The UK might be beating a retreat from the European Union, but bmi Regional is intent on waving its Union Jack tailfins in parts of Europe that other airlines simply ignore. Lublin, Norrkoping, Brno and Saarbrucken may not be on the list of many people’s must-see destinations, but niche business markets like these are the bread and butter for bmi, which serves 46 such routes in 11 European countries.
In October, the carrier marked five years as an independent entity under the umbrella of Airline Investments Limited (AIL), which also owns Scotland’s Loganair. AIL swooped when IAG absorbed bmi mainline, (the former British Midland Airways) in 2012 and British Midland Regional Ltd, with 20 Embraer 135 and 145s, was hived off.
As a standalone brand within AIL, bmi now does exactly what the “Regional” part of its name suggests. Bmi is based in its former parent company’s home near East Midlands airport, but the British Midlands aspect is sounding a little parochial today as 60 percent of bmi’s route network does not touch the UK, let alone the Midlands, a proportion likely to increase despite Brexit. To find out more about how Brexit might affect air travel, please visit our page on "flying after Brexit."
Aberdeen
