bmi cutting number of London-Belfast, London-Tel Aviv flights

bmi (British Midland Airways), based in Castle Donington, Leicestershire, England, has announced that it is reducing the number of its  flights between London and Belfast in Northern Ireland and between London and Tel Aviv in Israel.

In a statement, bmi, headquartered close to East Midlands Airport, said it will cut from 9 to 7 the number of services between Heathrow Airport in London and George Best Belfast City Airport in Belfast from the end of October 2009.

The airline will, from October 25, 2009, drop from the winter schedule the 19:00 flight from London to Belfast and the 21.05 flight in the opposite direction.

Bmi said in an email to its customers that the carrier “would try to make alternative arrangements” for those who had already booked one of the flights on the London-Belfast route “with the minimum of disruption.”

Brenda Morgan, bmi’s sales manager for Northern Ireland, added in the email that the 2 early-evening flights – which leave within 40 minutes of each other – would be merged and that the change in the airline’s winter timetable “maintains sufficient passenger capacity.”

It is for the first time that bmi is suspending 2 its weekend flights between London and Israel.

From November 2009 till March 2010, bmi plans to cut the serviced between Luton Airport in London and Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv from 14 flights to 12 flights in the winter schedule. Which means, bmi will operate only 1 daily flight instead of 2 flights on Fridays and Saturdays.

The reduction of flights on the London-Tel Aviv route is believed to be owing to the slump in passenger traffic in the winter as well as strong competition.

It may be noted that bmi is the first Europe-based carrier to be reducing the number of flights to Israel for the coming winter thanks to poor profits.

Also, bmi’s proposed cutback in the number of London-Te Aviv services coincides with the starting of flights in November 2009 by the Britain-based easyJet between London and Israel.

easyJet, the low-cost airline based in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, will start with operating 6 flights a week between London and Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.

In a press release, easyJet said it is also planning to operate flights between Switzerland and Israel, following the two countries signing an aviation pact.

bmi had started service to Israel in March 2008 with 7 flights a week (one flight a day) using the rather small Airbus A-319 aircraft.  In May 2009, bmi doubled the number of flights to Tel Aviv to 2 flights a day as well as replaced the aircraft operating on the route with the bigger Airbus A-330.