bmibaby

bmibaby
IATA
WW		 ICAO
BMI		 Callsign
BABY
Founded 2002
Bases
Frequent-flyer program BMI Diamond Club
Fleet size 14
Destinations 32
Company slogan baby!
Parent company BMI
Headquarters Castle Donington, England, United Kingdom
Key people Wolfgang Prock-Schauer (CEO)[1]
Stefan Lauer (Chairman)[1]
Julian Carr (MD)
Website www.bmibaby.com

Bmibaby (styled as bmibaby) is a British low-cost airline and a subsidiary of BMI. It flies to destinations in Europe from its 4 bases at Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands, and Manchester. Bmibaby is a member of the Bmi Diamond Club frequent flyer program, however it is not a member of the Star Alliance, so other Star Alliance airlines' passengers cannot earn points on Bmibaby flights.

Bmibaby Ltd holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, and is permitted to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.[2]

Contents

History

A Bmibaby Boeing 737-300 in the old livery, landing at Birmingham International Airport, England. (2007)
A Bmibaby Boeing 737-300 in the new livery, taxiing at Manchester Airport, England. (2009)
A Bmibaby Boeing 737 at Geneva International Airport, Switzerland. (2010)
A Bmibaby Boeing 737-500 at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Netherlands. (2009)

The airline was established on 24 January, 2002[3] and started operations on 22 March, 2002 with a flight between East Midlands and Málaga.

Continued expansion saw the airline open further bases at Cardiff in October 2002,[4] Manchester in May 2003,[5] Durham Tees Valley in October 2003[6] and Birmingham in January 2005.[7] Insufficient passenger numbers led to the closure of the Durham Tees Valley base in 2006.[8]

On 1 March, 2007, the airline announced an initiative for business travellers with an 'only choose what you need' approach, allowing passengers the option to choose from a range of services such as ticket flexibility, executive lounge access and on-line check in, and only pay for the services they used. The company also announced that BMI's frequent flyers could now gain Diamond Club miles.[9]

By 2007, Bmibaby had nine Boeing 737 aircraft based at Birmingham Airport, making it their biggest base, however in December 2008 the airline announced that it would be suspending five routes from the airport as a result of a reduction in the number of customers booking city-breaks.[10]

Further cuts were announced in November 2009 when it was announced that the fleet would be reduced from 17 to 12 aircraft in 2010, with up to 158 jobs at risk of redundancy.[11] The airline said the action was necessary to stem record losses and that it would focus on growth routes best fit for the business.[12]

Destinations

Bmibaby flies to a number of European destinations from its four bases; East Midlands, Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester.

Fleet

The Bmibaby fleet consists of the following aircraft in an all-economy class (as of 28 June 2010):[13]

Bmibaby Fleet
Aircraft Total Passengers
Boeing 737-300 11 148
Boeing 737-500 3 131
Total 14

As of June 2010, the average age of Bmibaby's fleet is 14.5 years.[14]

Several aircraft have names with the word Baby in the title.[15]

Inflight services

Bmibaby offers a buy on board programme with scratch-cards, toys and gifts, drinks, snacks, and sandwiches for purchase.[16]

Sponsorship

BmiBaby sponsors:

They also sponsor regional weather broadcasts on ITV1 in the ITV Border, ITV Central and ITV Wales regions. They previously sponsored weather broadcasts in the ITV Granada, ITV London (Weekend), ITV Meridian (only in the former ITV Central South area), ITV Tyne Tees & UTV (Ski & Holiday Reports only) regions.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bmibaby - Company Information
  2. ↑ Operating Licence
  3. ↑ UK Companies House Company #03259921
  4. ↑ bmibaby to serve nine destinations from Cardiff Airport
  5. ↑ Passenger numbers soar 400% at bmibaby
  6. ↑ Bmibaby chooses Teesside for new low-cost base
  7. ↑ bmibaby confirms first nine European routes from Birmingham International Airport
  8. ↑ bmibaby to end Durham Tees Valley operations
  9. ↑ bmibaby joins Diamond Club : Birmingham Airport News Stories
  10. ↑ Sixty five jobs go at bmibaby
  11. ↑ Low-cost airline cutting 158 jobs
  12. ↑ Bmibaby to focus on growth routes
  13. ↑ CAA databse - Bmibaby Fleet
  14. ↑ Bmibaby Fleet Age Details
  15. ↑ Bmibaby Fleet Names
  16. ↑ "FAQs." Bmibaby. Retrieved on 30 January 2009.

External links

Civil Air Ensign of the United Kingdom Airlines of the United Kingdom

Air Southwest · Astraeus Airlines · Atlantic Airlines · Atlantic Express · Aurigny Air Services · BA CityFlyer · Blue Islands · BMI · Bmibaby · BMI Regional · Bond Aviation Group · Bristow Helicopters · British Airways · British International Helicopters · DHL Air UK · Eastern Airways · EasyJet · Flairjet · Flybe · Global Supply Systems · Isles of Scilly Skybus · Janes Aviation · Jet2.com · Loganair · Lydd Air · Monarch Airlines · ScotAirways · Thomas Cook Airlines · Thomson Airways · Titan Airways · Virgin Atlantic Airways

 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
See also Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom