bmibaby Pulls Out of Cardiff and Manchester
Cheap fares airline bmibaby has revealed that it will be pulling its aircraft out of Cardiff and Manchester airports at the end of the summer season. This will mean that travellers in these regions will no longer be able to use the carrier for cheap flights to Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Mallorca, Ireland and the Czech Republic.
The low-cost airline made the decision after deciding to increase its focus at other regional hubs – namely Belfast City, Birmingham and the East Midlands.
Two aircraft are being transferred to Belfast, where bmibaby will begin operating cheap summer 2012 flights to Alicante, Faro, Ibiza, Malaga and Palma, plus a 12-month service offering cheap flights to Amsterdam and a winter service to Geneva aimed at skiers and snowboarders. It will base additional aircraft at both Birmingham and East Midlands airports, with the latter hub to offer cheap flights to Toulouse and Chambery this winter, also aimed at skiers.
The airline's managing director Julian Carr also said that more routes for next summer from both of these hubs will be announced in the next couple of months. Explaining why bmibaby decided to pull out of Cardiff and Manchester, he added: "In the current economic climate it is essential for bmibaby to focus on airports where the airline already has a strong market presence and where are strong growth opportunities for the bmibaby business."
However, bmibaby's sister carrier bmi regional will still operate out of Manchester Airport, offering flights to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Lyon. bmi also recently announced plans for new flights to Frankfurt and Basel from the hub.
Airlines and Airport News posted by 
on 14 April 2011
