Airline cuts back on summer flights

[November 26th 2008]

Low cost airline bmibaby has decided to suspend flights planned for summer 2009 from Birmingham, Manchester and East Midlands airports.

Birmingham airport will be worst affected with summer flights to Rome, Milan, Lisbon, Madrid and Bordeaux all suspended from March 29th to October 24th. The changes to the airline’s summer schedule also affect Manchester and East Midlands airports. Flights to Madrid from Manchester will be suspended from March 29th until October 22nd. East Midlands airport will lose the planned flights to Prague from March 29th to October 23rd.

In a press statement bmibaby said: “The decision to suspend these seasonal summer 2009 routes was a very tough one, and is in response to a weakening of demand, which is being impacted upon by the current economic climate”.

The airline says passengers with bookings on the suspended flights will be contacted by the middle of December and offered a refund or the option to transfer to another bmibaby flight within 7 days of the original travel date. It also points out that passengers with bookings from East Midlands to Prague will have the option of flying from Birmingham to Prague. And Birmingham to Bordeaux passengers will be able to fly from Manchester to Bordeaux.

Birmingham airport has responded to bmibaby’s announcement in a press statement: “The airport is naturally disappointed and our thoughts are with those staff that are affected at this time”. It is thought there could be 65 job losses at Birmingham and another five at East Midlands airport.

“One of the cancelled bmibaby routes will still operate from Birmingham and the Airport Company will be doing all it can to reinstate the suspended routes as soon as possible, either with bmibaby or an alternative airline,” the press statement continues.

“The cancellation of these five routes shows that Birmingham is not immune to the current economic slowdown and that the coming year will be a challenging one,” the airport concludes.

Birmingham airport’s latest passenger figures, for October, show that numbers fell by only 0.7% compared to the same month last year. "The UK recessional pressures have clearly exerted an affect on the Airport but with the latest statistics indicating an average fall in passenger numbers across all UK airports of around 6% last month, Birmingham continues to perform well," comments Birmingham airport CEO, Paul Kehoe.

Written by: Nick Purdom

Save up to 60% and book your Birmingham Airport parking at an unbeatable price with Holiday Extras