BELFAST City to Heathrow carrier airline bmi has renewed its commitment to the Belfast-Heathrow service - despite more competition on the route.

New bmi Managing Director Peter Spencer took the opportunity of a visit to the Province recently to meet members of the Travel Trade and attend a business awards ceremony to pledge the airline's continued commitment to the Belfast service.

He called for the lifting of the night time curfew to allow for a late departure from Heathrow, mainly to satisfy the needs of bmi's business travellers.

He revealed that the George Best Belfast City Airport to Heathrow service would be the first on the airline's network to trial ticketless travel (the scheme begins soon and will the first route to be trialled by bmi).

And he underlined the importance of Belfast-Heathrow in the airline's domestic operations, despite competition on the route for the first time in seven years.

"We have maintained our schedule of eight flights a day despite the competition, and we would like to operate a ninth service, outside the current operating hours of 9.30pm at Belfast City."

He said the airline would like to operate a later flight from Heathrow outside the current operating hours to satisfy demand mainly of its business travellers. He pointed out that bmi's Airbus 320 aircraft were among the quietest in service and local residents need not, he said, be unduly worried.

The installation of new noise monitoring and flight tracking equipment by the Airport should also provide reassurance to local residents, he pointed out.

However, while Ryanair - operators to four routes from Belfast City - are pushing for the lengthening of the runway, bmi have no interest in the project whatsoever.

"The runway at the moment is perfectly adequate as far as we are concerned," commented the bmi Managing Director".

The ticketless travel trial project is an indication of the value bmi puts on its Belfast-Heathrow service. The ticketless travel trial will be in operation soon, and if successful will be rolled out across the airline's domestic and international network.

He added: "We have been flying from Belfast for 25 years and have been operating through good times and not so good times.

"While our competitors have come and gone, we look forward to operating from the Province for another 25 years."