Now Heathrow Goes Low

GOOD news for travellers on the Province's busiest daily air service.

Operating airline bmi is introducing what it calls 'tiny fares' on every flight between Belfast City and the UK's top airport, London Heathrow, from June 15.

It's understood that a set percentage of seats on all 54 weekly round trips from Belfast City by bmi will have a set percentage of the 'tiny fares' - starting at just £25 one way, including taxes.

The fares will only be on sale on-line at the websites of bmi and its low cost arm, bmibaby - and not through travel agents' GDS booking systems. It's expected though that in many cases agents will book the fares and charge a booking fee as they do with low-cost airlines.

And, in a major revamp of its operations to change the emphasis to a more low-cost structure, bmi has confirmed that Belfast City Airport's service to London Heathrow will be one of only four routes on its short haul network to Heathrow on which the airline will retain Business class!

The airline's new modular approach will see all but four of its 17 short-haul Heathrow services switch to a single class service, introducing lower fares, charging for on-board food and faster 'e-enabled' services for customers on the ground.

It's understood that the change to charging for catering on board in economy class will not be implemented until early August.

Bmi confirmed that four core business routes - Heathrow to Belfast City, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Brussels - will retain a separate Business class cabin, after research showed demand still exists for it on these routes. But all other routes will become single class.

Said bmi Northern Ireland Sales Manager, Brenda Morgan: "We have listened to what our customers have been telling us - and that is that there is a strong demand for a dedicated Business class cabin from Belfast.'

Bmi claims that the new initiatives are expected to deliver savings of more than £30 million annually.

Tthe second-largest airline at Heathrow says it decided to make changes following a six-month study surveying the views of 10,000 air travellers.

For the first time, it says, true low-cost fares will be available from Heathrow, with the service running along the lines of bmi's budget airline, bmibaby.

Nigel Turner, bmi's Chief Executive, said: "For the last three years we have faced two fundamental issues. More than half of our passengers travel on business, but most of them do so in the rear of the aircraft. They or their companies choose to travel in economy.

"And our leisure travellers are getting lowest fares but a full service offering.

"Now we're getting back in sync with what our customers want. We're giving them the choice. They can choose what they want - and what they want to pay for - when they travel.'

The changes do not affect the services run by bmi's regional operation, including services out of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Nottingham East Midlands airports.

The carrier is to install more self-check-in kiosks, along with new systems to allow check-in and printing of boarding passes at home for better punctuality and customer convenience.