Well that fits in with their all Airbus ultimate philosophy but I would say they would probably stick to A330 in my humble opinion since it can cover the range and would mean no pilot courses for A340 unless Airbus offer them for nada

I’m sure there’s a few 343’s or 342’s on the 2nd hand market somewhere! 🙂

Well all i hope is that we won’t see a big reduction of services from MAN which i can’t see myself, but u never know

And from the bmi site

bmi, the UK’s second largest full service scheduled airline, said today it was delighted to have been granted the right to fly to India by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

The announcement will mean that for the first time, consumers will be able to sample all of the benefits of flying long haul from London Heathrow with bmi.

In its ruling the CAA has decided to grant bmi four flights per week to Mumbai. bmi will begin operating from 27th March 2005 . Fares and schedules will be announced in due course.

The decision will be welcomed by air travellers in both India and the UK, who have been denied choice, competitive air fares and network competition when travelling to the sub-continent for many years. Until now, British Airways and Air India have operated direct services, meaning that travellers have not benefited from any genuine UK airline competition.

Sir Michael Bishop, chairman, bmi said:
“I am delighted that the CAA has awarded these rights to us. I am even more delighted for the consumer who will now see genuine competition in action. Whilst we clearly would have preferred to offer a daily service to Mumbai from the outset, we will aim to build on these initial rights as additional capacity becomes available.

“The CAA has recognised the need for new competition on these routes and today’s decision will mean that air passengers will now have greater choice and value when flying to India and better connection opportunities to other UK regional points.

” I look forward to serving the Indian market and growing our services as soon as further capacity is available”.

Great news for bmi and for LHR!
Now the question begins, wot will happen to MAN-IAD and the carribean services? MAN-LAS is year round so that will fit in nicely with the India routes, MAN-ORD, well too popular to get rid of, and i’m booked on it for July :rolleyes:
So could there be an extra A330 on the way as rumored? Its about time to fill the ap between ‘BB and ‘BD, so ‘BC could be on the way? I hope so anyway!

Mark beat me to it 😀

Taken from pprune

The CAA announced the results this morning:

Following the hearing held on 11 and 12 November to decide how to allocate the 21 frequencies newly available for UK airlines to serve various points in India, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced that it considers its statutory duties in this case are best served by awarding:

seven services to British Airways, four of which are to be operated on the Chennai (Madras) route and three to Bangalore;

four services to British Midland Airways to be operated on the Mumbai (Bombay) route; and

ten services to Virgin Atlantic, seven of which are to be used on the Delhi route and three on Mumbai.

The frequencies, which become available in three tranches from Winter 2004, were secured under the latest bilateral air services agreement between the Governments of the UK and India, signed in September. British Airways currently operate all 19 services per week available to UK airlines under the terms of the previous agreement between the two countries. Following this decision, the distribution of rights will be as follows:

Airline Current distribution of rights Newly allocated rights Allocation after decision

See http://www.caa.co.uk/caanews/caanews.asp?nid=999

Thank God, baby are sorting out the shortage of aircraft! Efficiency might get better now!

Deffo old fash! Not nice at all, better than AC’s tho 😉

Well as one airline annoucnces a new route, another is pulling out!
Air Jamaica is to halt MAN services next month. Seems that my good old bmi has taken the buissness Air Jamaica had hoped! Will be sad to see those A340’s not at MAN, but really its better to see bmi do wel on those Carribean routes i think! 😉

bmi are best for points. One guy flew with them weekly return (first/business class) from MAN to ORD and got so many bmi points they flew him and his wife to Scotland first class, had a helicopter meet them at the airport and flew them to Gleneagles hotel for a all inclusive long weekend where they picked up the tab. They didnt even deduct any points from his balance!

My dad has enough bmi points now for several trips to America for all four of us several times and he only flies the BHD to LHR route!

I’m a member of the diamond club, and i’ve collected 1000 miles in my 1st month of being a memeber! With a New Economy ticket, and miles to redeem in the US next year, i should be Silver level in No Time! 😀
It isn’t as good as it was back in the 90’s, as they offered even more miles!