bmi to discontinue flights from London to Tel Aviv, Brussels, Amsterdam, Ukraine, Syria; not resuming seasonal flights

bmi, the low-cost airline based in Castle Donington, England, is eliminating its Tel Aviv-London route from January 10, 2010, and also doing away with 600 jobs as a part of its measures to cut costs.

The struggling carrier is also suspending its flights from London’s Heathrow Airport to Brussels (Belgium), Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and Aleppo (Syria.)

bmi said it will end its service between London and Amsterdam in March 2010.

The seasonal flights between Heathrow Airport to Palma (in Majorca, Spain) and Venice (Italy) will not resume in the summer of 2010.

Though bmi has no plans right now to reduce its services between London and Scotland, it has not ruled out the possibility of effecting changes to its domestic schedule.

bmi, or the British Midland Airways, had launched the service between London and Tel Aviv, in Israel, in March 2008.

The carrier at present operates 2 daily flights between Heathrow Airport in London and Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

bmi has promised to seek “alternatives” for those passengers holding tickets for later dates after January 10, 2010, when the London-Tel Aviv flights will end.

bmi had started off the service to Israel in March 2008 with one flight daily, and it was a success. Later, the number of flights was doubled to 2 flights a day, and bmi started using a larger aircraft on the London-Tel Aviv route.

In a statement, bmi – now owned by Lufthansa, the flag-carrier airline of Germany –  said it is also cutting its fleet of jets and as well as eliminating loss-making routes in order to cope with volatile fuel prices, increasing competition, and dwindling demand for air travel as a result of the global economic downturn.

British Airways, the national airline of the United Kingdom and rival of bmi, is also suffering from declining passenger numbers, especially the business-class passengers.

bmi said it will reduce the number of planes in its bmi Mainline unit by 9 panes from the 39 planes at present.

Meanwhile, a representative of Lufthansa was quoted as saying that Lufthansa had not ordered that the London-Tel Aviv route be scrapped and that bmi was given the freedom to decide as to which routes it should get rid of.

bmi – bought by Lufthansa in July 2009 – is at present the second biggest airline at London’s Heathrow Airport, which is the busiest airport in the world. It is as member of the Star Alliance.

The carrier airline had recently put up for sale a number of its highly valued landing slots at Heathrow Airport.

At present, bmi employs 4,500 people.