British Midland Airways Limited trading at various times throughout its history as British MidlandBMI British MidlandBMI or British Midland International [1] was an airline with its head office in Donington Hall in Castle Doningtonclose to East Midlands Airportin the United Kingdom.

The airline flew to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America and Central Asia from its operational base at London Heathrow Airportwhere at its peak it held ca.

BMI was a member of Star Alliance from 1 July until 20 April BMI was acquired from Lufthansa by International Airlines Group IAG on 20 Apriland was integrated into British Airways BA by 27 October BMI's subsidiaries Bmibaby and BMI Regional were also purchased, although IAG did not wish to retain either. British Midland Airways Limited held a Civil Aviation Authority CAA Type A Operating Licence, permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

The airline dates back towhen Captain Roy Harben established Air Schools Limited as a school for training pilots of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Captain Harben had been approached by the Derby Corporation to run a new aerodrome under construction near Burnastonwhich was planned to eventually become an airport. Sir Kingsley Woodthe Secretary of State for Airofficially opened the aerodrome as Derby Municipal Airport on 17 June Military flying training continued at the airport throughout the war.

Air Schools Limited formed a parent company, Derby Aviation Limitedinand Harben died the following year of a heart attack. His wife remained the controlling shareholder of the business and asked E. Phillips, who had been involved in running the flying school with Captain Harben, to become the new managing director. The new parent company also incorporated Wolverhampton Aviation, based at Pendefordwhich offered ad hoc charter and freight flights with de Havilland Dragon Rapidesas well as aircraft maintenance and brokerage.

InDerby Aviation ceased flying training, following the award of a licence to operate scheduled flights from Burnaston and Wolverhampton to Jersey. Flights in each direction were required to land at Elmdon Airport in Birmingham to allow passengers to clear customs. The first flight was made on 18 Julyusing a Dragon Rapide. The following year, Wolverhampton Aviation was merged into Derby Aviation, and, inthe company purchased its first Douglas DC-3a converted former military transport.

International services to Ostend commenced inand flights carrying holidaymakers from the UK to mainland Europe began as well. The company was also contracted by Rolls-Royce to transport aero engines to customers all over the world. InDerby Aviation formed Derby Airways as its airline business and introduced a new livery incorporating the new airline's name.

Domestic scheduled flights within the United Kingdom began the same year. On 1 Octoberafter buying the Manchester Airport -based scheduled and charter airline Mercury Airlines, [7] the company changed its name to British Midland Airways BMA and moved operations from Burnaston to the recently opened East Midlands Airport.

The corporate colours of blue and white were adopted at that time, along with the first turboprop aircraft, a Handley Page Dart Herald.

Minster Assets, a London-based investment and banking group, acquired the airline inand in promoted former Mercury ground handling manager Michael Bishop to become the company's general manager. As a first step, in NovemberBMA took over Autair 's Heathrow — Teesside route, which marked the airline's Heathrow debut.

InBMA entered the jet age with the introduction of three new BAC One-Eleven sfollowed by an ex- Pan Am Boeing — in The former had been intended to be primarily used on European inclusive tour IT charters while the latter was to be mainly used on transatlantic "affinity group" charters.

Following his appointment as managing director inBishop withdrew the One-Elevens from service, two of which were swapped for three Handley Page Dart Heralds while the third was subsequently leased to Court Line.

This resulted in BMA concentrating on regional, short-haul scheduled services and ad hoc charters using turboprops such as the Herald and Viscount as these were more economical than contemporary jets on short, thin routes. The success of the airline's wet lease operation resulted in an increase in the number of Boeing s allocated to this activity, including the addition of several later model B and C aircraft from All of these were leased to other operators, with none operating for BMA on scheduled or charter services until On 1 NovemberBMA began operating between London Gatwick and Belfastwhere it replaced the service previously operated by British Caledonian.

London—Belfast was BMA's first UK domestic trunk route and the first all-year round route it served in [indirect] competition with British Airways BA. In Januaryan agreement was reached for BMA to provide two Vickers Viscounts in Cyprus Airways livery to link Athens with Cyprus.

A former WWII airfield at Larnaca was selected to serve the south of the island, following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in The first flights departed Larnaca on 10 February On 1 Septemberjets began gradually replacing the turboprop fleet on most of BMA's domestic and European services, when the airline's first Douglas DC-9 a second-hand leased from the manufacturer replaced Viscounts on the Heathrow—Tesside route.

InMinster Assets sought to sell the company. With the help of a Californian entrepreneur, Robert F. On 31 MarchBritish Midland replaced British Airways on the Leeds Bradford to London Heathrow route, initially operating with their remaining Viscount aircraft. Within a year or two these were replaced by the DC9 15, and following the extension of the runway at Leeds Bradford, the DC9 32 became the standard equipment on the route supplemented by the 15 series and at weekends the occasional Viscount, Fokker F27 or BAE ATP turbo prop.

In however, British Midland leased a BAC G-WLAD from Airways International Cymruand this aircraft was mainly used on the Heathrow route in lieu of the usual DC9s which returned in In the following years, British Midland increased its operations from Leeds Bradford, and introduced other routes including Glasgow, Paris CDG and Brussels.

When the DC9s were phased out, the Boeing became a regular on the Heathrow route, and later the, and were all operated prior to the arrival of the newly acquired Fokkerwhich again was supplemented on quieter rotations by the smaller Fokker Eventually the Airbus A became the standard equipment to Heathrow, but busier rotations saw the larger A and occasional A too.

At its peak, British Midland operated up to 6 flights each way to and from Heathrow from Leeds Bradford, the final late-evening flight being operated on a smaller Embraer Regional Jet. In the airline dropped the route, which they had operated unbroken for 29 years.

Inthe CAA turned down BMA's application to fly between Heathrow, Glasgow and Edinburgh. However, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry upheld the airline's appeal against the CAA's ruling. The Secretary of State 's decision to overturn the CAA's ruling enabled the airline to commence its first domestic trunk route from the UK's premier airport on 25 Octoberwhen it launched six daily return flights between Heathrow and Glasgow operated with DC-9s.

Although these flights were not as frequent as the competing hourly BA shuttle, BMA offered keener fares and a full in-flight service compared with the no frills shuttle. Following BMA's success on the Heathrow—Glasgow route, the airline began flying between Heathrow and Edinburgh and Heathrow and Belfast With the introduction of these services, BMA and BA were now in direct competition on the UK's three busiest domestic trunk routes.

In Octoberthe Boeing fleet was withdrawn, having been used extensively on lease operations for other airlines across the world. Ina new aircraft livery featuring a dark blue upper half and tail, with a light grey lower half separated by a thin, white stripe, was introduced. At this time, BMA was branded simply British Midlandand a new logo featuring a stylised red BM crowned with a white diamond shape appeared on aircraft tailfins.

However, the logo on the aircraft's fins remained unchanged. The conclusion of the first fully liberalised bilateral air transport agreement in Europe between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands inas well as a legal technicality exempting the airline from the "London [Air] Traffic Distribution Rules" a government policy that sought to compel all airlines that were planning to operate an international scheduled service to or from Heathrow for the first time to use Gatwick instead as a result of having operated a Heathrow— Strasbourg scheduled service prior to this policy coming into effect on 1 Aprilenabled BMA to compete directly with BA between Heathrow and Amsterdam from 29 Pko bp forex opinie This resulted in Reasons for company to buyback shares becoming the first private, independent airline to compete with then wholly government-owned BA on an international trunk route from Zeitwert call option berechnen. The Diamond Club frequent flyer programme FFP launched on 1 Octobercoinciding with the introduction of an enhanced business class style, single-class Diamond Service featuring a full meal and free onboard drinks service for all passengers, regardless of the fare paid, as well as airport lounges at the airline's major UK destinations.

In MarchAirlines of Britain Holdings ABH was formed to act as a holding company for British Midland Airways and British Midland Aviation Services. British Midland operated axp stock buy or sell final Viscount flight on 20 February21 years after the airline had first operated the type.

The BAe ATP was the airline's last turboprop type. InBritish Midland became the first airline to offer a vegetarian choice of in-flight meals on UK domestic flights and one of the first in Europe to do so on domestic services. The following year, the airline introduced Diamond EuroClass on its European routes, the first time it had offered a separate cabin for business travellers. Initially, Diamond EuroClass was competitively priced, with the highest fares being the same as rivals' published economy class fares.

On 30 SeptemberBritish Midland began offering Diamond EuroClass on all its domestic routes, becoming the second airline in the UK after Jersey European Airways which had pioneered business class on UK domestic routes in to offer a separate cabin for business travellers on domestic routes and the first to do so on domestic trunk routes from Heathrow.

ABH became British Midland Plc inwhen it was de-merged as part of major corporate restructuring. In JulyBishop formally opened the British Midland Training Centre in Stockley Close. Following research that had established that people in the UK tended to confuse British Midland with buy shares in british airways Midland Bank or British Airways and that many outside the UK could not relate to the term " Midland ", it launched a forex lanka sinhala corporate identity inrebranding the airline as BMI British Midland subsequently shortened to BMI.

Aircraft received a new livery of royal blue, white and a fading Union flag on the tail, along with the new lower case BMI logotype. Bilateral restrictions implemented in the Bermuda II agreement meant the airline could neither fly its own aircraft to the US from its main base at Heathrow nor sell tickets on codeshare flights operated by Star Alliance partner United Airlines from the airport, as had been planned.

Instead, it launched flights from Manchester to Washington Dulles and Chicago O'Hare in May and June how to make money in webcomics. Initially, the new As operated both routes; however, the Washington service was subsequently downgraded to a narrowbody operation using a Boeing leased from Icelandair before being axed in The airline carried 7. BMI operated a service to Mumbai from London Heathrow between May and Octoberafter the UK and India amended their bilateral air services agreement.

Services to Riyadh followed, commencing on 1 Septemberafter British Airways ceased to serve Saudi Arabia earlier that year. BMI also launched a scheduled service to Moscow Domodedevo in co-operation with Transaero Airlines on 29 Octoberwhich used a dedicated A aircraft G-MIDO with special seating for the service, including leather seats and a 40" seat pitch.

In the airline launched non-stop services from its Heathrow hub to Cairo and Ammanraising the airline's profile in the Middle East significantly. BMI announced on 5 November that it would end all longhaul operations from Manchester Airport. The two Airbus A aircraft based there were moved to Heathrow. In FebruaryBMI bought British Mediterranean Airways BMED[35] a British Airways franchise partner, and as a result gained access to new markets in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia that were served by that carrier.

It can therefore be argued that the EC's decision to legalise this practice made BMI an attractive takeover target for other Heathrow-based airlines and helped it avert bankruptcy. In Novemberfollowing the complete takeover of BMI by Lufthansa, the airline announced a restructuring of its mainline and regional operations in an effort to suspend loss-making routes and adjust capacity.

The measures included a fleet reduction of nine aircraft from the mainline fleet two of which were operated by BMI Regional and the suspension of routes from London Heathrow to Amsterdam, Brussels, Tel AvivKiev and Aleppo in Seasonal routes from London Heathrow to Palma and Venice were also discontinued.

On 12 JanuaryBMI announced that the number of daily flights between Dublin and London Heathrow would be reduced from 28 March from six to four due to the economic climate, which depressed consumer demand.

Current trading price microsoft stock resulted in the closure of the Dublin base, which consisted of one plane and 33 cabin crew.

In Aprilthe airline announced hull trading system would begin using the British Midland International name, whilst retaining the BMI logo and continuing to be known by those initials in the domestic market.

This entailed aircraft downsizing replacing Airbus mainline jets with Embraer regional jetsfrequency reductions and route cutbacks on the airline's loss-making short-haul routes from otc foreign exchange market airport, including axing its by then heavily loss-making Heathrow—Glasgow route from 27 March BMI's last-ever commercial flight using a "BD"-prefixed flight number touched down at London Heathrow on 27 October It was operated by Airbus A G-MEDF.

The airline had its head office at Donington Hall in Castle Donington in North West Leicestershirenear Derby.

BMI also operated a flight training centre in the Stockley Close Industrial Estate in West DraytonLondon Borough of Hillingdonnear London Heathrow Airport. The centre opened in and BMI had a year lease on the property running from 25 March to 24 March Between andLufthansa sought to sell some or all of its share in the airline. Virgin Atlantic hoped to buy the shares to then merge both airlines, as BMI was already Virgin's preferred feeder airline into Heathrow.

BMI was believed to have initiated the talks after it began losing money following the 11 September attacks. A merger would have strengthened Virgin Atlantic's base at Heathrow, where BMI had hundreds of highly valued take-off and landing slots, to increase the competition with British Airways. Worried about the increased competition it would face if such a merger went make money homesteading, British Airways considered the takeover of either BMI or Virgin Atlantic to stop the merger.

British Airways concluded it would be easier to take over the financially weaker and less high-profile BMI. However, in talks of any merger of the three airlines ended. In latethe airline again dismissed renewed speculation that Virgin Atlantic was preparing to make a bid to acquire full control of BMI, despite Sir Richard Branson repeating in a radio interview that such a merger would stock market after bush election day a logical business move.

The airline commented that it was in early discussions with Lufthansa as a potential buyer. The European antitrust body approved the takeover on 14 Mayallowing Lufthansa to become the majority stakeholder. Due to landing rights issues, the stake would be tentatively held by a Lufthansa-controlled but British-based company, LHBD Holding.

Once new bilateral agreements were in place, Lufthansa would take direct control. Lufthansa buy expert advisor forex in September that it planned to sell BMI following continued losses.

The day British Airways couldn’t get it up

Under the agreed contract, Lufthansa would continue to be responsible for the BMI pension scheme after the sale was completed, although following rejection by the pension regulator, it is now to enter the Pension Protection Fund. On 30 Marchthe sale of BMI was approved, conditional on giving up control of 14 daily slots at London Heathrow. Twelve of these were required to change hands completely while the remaining two could continue be part of the airline's slot portfolio but needed to be leased out.

The twelve slots eventually went to Virgin Atlantic, [60] who subsequently used them to set up its UK domestic operation operating out of BMI's old domestic base at Heathrow Terminal 1. BMI's ownership transferred to IAG at The Diamond Club FFP continues for members with a BMI credit card, who earn points from their spend which can be converted to Avios, the currency of BA's FFP, Executive Club, on a 1: All other members were required to transfer to British Airways' Executive Club FFP.

InBMI set up a low-cost subsidiary, Bmibabyusing Boeing s which were displaced after BMI's fleet renewal programme favoured an all-Airbus fleet. Bmibaby flew routes between major and secondary airports around Europe from its bases at East Midlands Airport and Birmingham Airport until it was closed down by IAG in September The airline also operated a regional subsidiary named BMI Regionalheadquartered in Aberdeen.

An agreement to sell the airline to the Scottish-based consortium Sector Aviation Holdings was reached in May and was completed on 1 June BMI Regional continued to operate regional services for BMI until 27 Octoberwhen it began operations as an independent airline.

The key trends for BMI over its later years are shown below figures as at year ending 31 December, and include Bmibaby: By OctoberBMI had codeshare agreements with the following airlines: Following the sale of BMI to IAG, the airline's fleet began to be transferred to BA. All aircraft were transferred and repainted in the BA livery, excluding two Airbus As which were returned to the lessors. At its peak prior to the commencement of licensing transfers, the fleet consisted of the following aircraft registered with the Civil Aviation Authority: On flights from London Heathrow within the UK and to Ireland, economy class passengers had a selection of food items available for purchase; flexible economy class passengers were offered complimentary snacks and drinks.

On European flights and services to TripoliTunisia and Moroccoa two-class in-flight service was in place, with a hot three course meal for the business cabin and complimentary food and drinks served in the economy cabin. On mid-haul and the Freetown route, a two-class in-flight service was also in place. The business cabin was served a three course meal and was provided in-flight entertainment.

A hot meal and complimentary drinks were served in the economy cabin. On A services to Saudi Arabia and Israel untilbusiness, premium economy only on board the flights to Israel and economy cabins were available, each provided with complimentary drinks and food.

Diamond Club was the frequent-flyer programme of BMI, with three membership levels: Blue, Silver and Gold. On sale to IAG, and being integrated into British Airways, Diamond Club members were offered a status match - BMI Gold to BA Gold, BMI Silver to BA Silver and BMI Blue to BA Blue BA's base level. At the time of transfer, BA did not offer a lifetime status, so members who held BMI Lifetime Gold having qualified for 10 years in succession were only matched to BA Gold and were required to re-qualify to maintain that status level.

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