bmibaby is dropping Durham Tees Valley as a hub and withdrawing from its 6 routes there….
BMIbaby axes Durham Tees Valley base
Victoria Moores, London (14Sep06, 13:10 GMT, 431 words)UK budget carrier BMIbaby is closing its Durham Tees Valley base, axing the six routes which it serves from the airport.
BMIbaby, which is the budget division of Star Alliance carrier BMI, will cease its services from Durham Tees Valley Airport –formerly known as Teesside – to Cork, London Gatwick and Paris Charles de Gaulle on 29 October.
Its remaining services to Alicante, Malaga and Palma will stop on 6 November, although a spokesman says that BMI mainline operations between London Heathrow and Durham Tees Valley will continue.
He says: “There has been significant investment [in Durham Tees Valley], but unfortunately we have been unable to create a commercially viable operation. Unfortunately the commitment we have made has not produced the support in sufficient numbers of passengers.
“BMIbaby employs approximately 50 people at the airport in flight deck and cabin crew positions. Discussions are now under way with employee groups and union representatives to identify redeployment opportunities at other locations, with a view to minimising the need for any compulsory redundancies.”
Durham Tees Valley Airport says that the development is “quite inexplicable” given BMIbaby’s current passenger volumes, especially on the three “extremely successful” Mediterranean routes.
BMIbaby doubled its capacity from the airport in April to meet passenger demand, says the airport, making the decision to axe the base “all the more confusing”.
It continues: “As late as May we were being advised by BMIbaby, that despite the sudden departure of its managing director, the airport should ‘have no concerns over its future’ as a base operation.
“Twelve weeks later – and following record passenger numbers in August – they have decided to withdraw the base operation. The speed of this turnaround is a shock.”
BMIbaby, which has a fleet of 19 Boeing 737s, plans to redeploy the two aircraft formerly based at Durham Tees Valley to more lucrative parts of its network. It is also planning to add two more Boeing 737s to its fleet next summer, as focuses on the development of its high-growth bases.
Newly appointed BMIbaby managing director Crawford Rix says: “We are in discussion with our airport partners about potential route development opportunities for these extra available aircraft and hope to be in a position to make an announcement and have seats on sale shortly.”
He adds that the summer 2007 expansion will be focussed on airports with “proven solid growth”. The four aircraft will be deployed from BMIBaby’s four key bases of Birmingham International, Cardiff, Manchester and Nottingham East Midlands.
“This means that we can continue to deliver an aggressive growth strategy for BMIbaby,” says Rix.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
By: Richard Taylor - 25th September 2006 at 08:09
Umm no, it’s bmi REGIONAL that is profitable, flying business routes. Recently announced increased Scotland-MAN flights for W06/07.
By: Spence_CWL - 24th September 2006 at 15:46
Great news for BHX, and the new destinations certainly sound like baby is becoming more adventurous. I just hope CWL gets the last 737. It’s about time bmibaby got some new, or at least new second hand 737s. I don’t see why there is such a lack of investment in baby, when everyone knows that baby is the only thing keeping the bmi group afloat. Surely in buying another 5 or 6 aircraft for the winter baby could greatly increase pax numbers and revenues, which would be good for the bmi group as a whole. Lack of aircraft is the only reason IMO why baby has lagged so far behind FR and EZY in expansion.
By: Pembo330 - 21st September 2006 at 18:07
Can’t talk…gutted.
By: LBARULES - 19th September 2006 at 22:10
Was just about to post the BHX news in a new thread!
Excellent news for Birmingham, nice to see an airport that Baby appear commited to, even if it at the expense of Durham Tees Valley.
By: Future Pilot - 19th September 2006 at 16:16
Bmibaby also have a press release on their website now…
http://www.bmibaby.com/bmibaby/en/index.aspx?p=43&cf=news&ID=363&year=all&month=all&pagenumber=0
This is indeed fantastic news for Birmingham and exciting times for Baby too who have been minimal in new routes etc in the last year or so, maybe the’ll be expanding into destinations like Budapest, Pisa, Rome etc.
By: rdc1000 - 19th September 2006 at 15:27
And the winner that gains from this is……….. BHX!!!
BMIbaby plans Birmingham expansion
Victoria Moores, London (19Sep06, 13:13 GMT, 213 words)Budget carrier BMIbaby is expanding its operations at Birmingham International Airport in the UK West Midlands, adding new routes and placing three aircraft at the base.
BMIbaby has five Boeing 737s based at Birmingham, but is set to increase this to eight from January next year. It recently revealed plans to add two aircraft to its fleet and to close its Durham Tees Valley base, thereby releasing a further two aircraft.
The budget airline says that it is planning an expansion programme from the base, with the addition of “several new destinations” and increased flight frequencies on some existing routes.
BMIbaby managing director Crawford Rix says: “We will be introducing a number of exciting new destinations to complement the thirteen European destinations that BMIbaby currently serves from Birmingham International Airport.
“The new destinations have not been finalised as we are still in the process of compiling a shortlist of European destinations that offer the market potential and infrastructure to cope with the significant injection of passenger volumes that BMIbaby will drive.
“The plan is to conclude discussions with short listed airport destinations over the next few weeks.”
Rix says that this marks the first phase of the airline’s Birmingham expansion. He adds the airline has further growth developments planned over the next year.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
By: Spence_CWL - 16th September 2006 at 18:53
EMA and CWL do not seem to be priorities for Baby in terms of new routres.
bmibaby based a third aircraft at CWL for the first time for summer 06, and said that they were seriously considering adding a fourth. That third aircraft remains, and bmibaby have experienced their busiest summer yet this year, and I believe are on course to fly 750,000 passengers this year from CWL. Their aim is to fly in excess of 1m passengers a year. It’s true that Air Wales’ collapse did hit them, as they were unprepared and therefore unable to provide cover for the Paris, Cork, Belfast and Jersey services. As a result, CDG was scrapped, ORK given to RE and frequencies greatly reduced to BFS & JER. But with four extra a/c, and CWL proving a “solid growth” base with many untapped routes, and the Route Development Fund that was not available this time last year, I’m confident that CWL will get at least one, maybe 2 of these aircraft, and maybe 2 or 3 new routes. Increasing the frequencies of some exisiting, under served routes must also be a priority. From where I’m standing CWL is definatly a priority. Aside from CWL, I agree that BHX will be the main recipient of the new aircraft and routes, and that MAN & EMA will see little if no expanison. It seems stupid to expand at EMA if your going to concentrate future growth at BHX, and theres just too much competion at MAN.
By: Manston Airport - 14th September 2006 at 23:01
Ryanair currently operate to DUB from MME, but tried Rome Ciampino and subsequently scrapped the route, so I wouldn’t be sure.
Oh right cheers Tom so thats a no go.
James
By: LBARULES - 14th September 2006 at 19:04
Ryanair currently operate to DUB from MME, but tried Rome Ciampino and subsequently scrapped the route, so I wouldn’t be sure.
By: Manston Airport - 14th September 2006 at 18:44
Wonder if Easyjet will head for MME?
Wonder If Ryanair will go to MME 🙂 They always on the look out for new base’s
James
By: EK. - 14th September 2006 at 18:24
Their was talk of WW starting GLA-BHX………..hopefuly now they have the aircraft to do it they will….
By: Britannia - 14th September 2006 at 18:17
Wonder if they will head for ncl then??
Wonder if Easyjet will head for MME?
By: LBARULES - 14th September 2006 at 17:29
Jet2 are very quick to react!
Bye bye Baby… hello Jet2.com
Stranded Teesside passengers flock to Leeds & Newcastle!
Only hours after it was announced that Durham Tees Valley airport was to lose it’s so called low cost services to Alicante, Cork, Malaga and Paris, Jet2.com experienced a flood of bookings from passengers forced to make alternative arrangements and fly from either Leeds Bradford or Newcastle Airports.
What many of them discovered however was that their unexpected change of plan was actually a blessing in disguise and saved them money, with some paying up to 25% less than their original fares.
The Jet2.com Huge Winter Sale is now on and seats are selling fast, don’t be stranded in Teesside, let Jet2.com whisk you away from Leeds or Newcastle.
By: LBARULES - 14th September 2006 at 17:27
I seriously doubt they will start at NCL. I don’t think Baby are currently looking to set up new bases to be honest, and NCL already has Jet2 and easyJet aircraft based.
Interestingly, here is the response from Durham Tees Valley…
Please find attached a statement from Durham Tees Valley in response to the News Release issued by bmibaby announcing that it is terminating its services with effect from October 29th
Durham Tees Valley Airport views today’s announcement by bmibaby as quite inexplicable bearing in mind the current volume of passengers being carried by the airline. In particular, the Mediterranean routes to Palma, Malaga and Alicante have proved extremely successful since their launch in 2004.
It was only in April 2006 that bmibaby doubled its capacity out of Durham Tees Valley Airport with the introduction of a second based aircraft to meet passenger demand. This makes the decision all the more confusing.
As late as May we were being advised by bmbibaby, that despite the sudden departure of its Managing Director, the Airport should ‘have no concerns over its future’ as a base operation.
Twelve weeks later—and following record passenger numbers in August—they have decided to withdraw the base operation.
The speed of this turnaround is a shock and must raise questions over the consistency of bmibaby’s route network development strategy. Questionable route development decisions—and lack of consistency in flying programmes—have challenged the market, but it is quite clear that when bmibaby has offered the right product at Durham Tees Valley passengers have responded very positively and in large numbers
Durham Tees Valley Airport is now carefully considering its position in the light of this announcement, with various options under review. The withdrawal of bmibaby represents an opportunity for other airlines to take over these successful routes on a more consistent basis and work closely with Durham Tees Valley Airport to develop a mutually beneficial business.
They sound seriously annoyed about this decision. Like other people have said, why were the routes doing sufficiently well to warrant a second aircraft just in April, and now no flights at all?
By: lukeylad - 14th September 2006 at 17:07
Wonder if they will head for ncl then??
By: LBARULES - 14th September 2006 at 17:04
Does this meen that we will see somenew WW routes from BHX and MAN, its about time there expansion has really been stagnant compared to LS and the others.
The base at BHX seems to be doing quite well, and has a decent number of destinations. I can’t really see them expanding anymore at MAN, with the competition of Jet2. I think the most likely thing may be further destinations from BHX. EMA and CWL do not seem to be priorities for Baby in terms of new routres.
By: lukeylad - 14th September 2006 at 17:02
Ouch thats a big loss for MME.
By: mmemovements - 14th September 2006 at 16:57
I’m totally surprised by this decision, as are DTVA themselves, if you read the press release on the airport website!
Scott
By: SHAMROCK321 - 14th September 2006 at 16:06
Does this meen that we will see somenew WW routes from BHX and MAN, its about time there expansion has really been stagnant compared to LS and the others.
By: LBARULES - 14th September 2006 at 15:51
That is really bad news for MME, if Baby couldn’t make it work it would be a big risk for another airline. Maybe FlyGlobespan as are going to start TFS..
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September 14, 2006 at 3:03 pm