Will bmi British Midland Quit Heathrow?

bmi British Midland have described their anger at raised passenger fees for using London Heathrow by announcing they may remove their hub from the airport entirely.

The airline has been the second busiest carrier at Heathrow for many years, after rival British Airways, and traditionally provided a range of domestic flights into Heathrow from UK regional airports which could then connect to other bmi flights to Europe and the Middle East, and onto other Star Alliance partner flights around the world.

However, now that BAA have upped the fee for a domestic passenger from 13 pounds to over 23 pounds the airline has suggested it may completely remove its network of domestic and European flights through Heathrow and instead provide links from UK regional airports to its parent, Lufthansa’s, German hub airports. This would save the airline and passengers money.

If this happens, the airline could focus on its Middle East flights out of Heathrow, which could be more profitable due to using larger aircraft holding more passengers.

Currently, the cheapest aircraft to operate into Heathrow is the largest – the Airbus A380. This is even more bizarre when you consider that the type takes up two slots for each movement.