bmi Airbus A320.

bmi Airbus A321 in an old, but still frequently seen, colour scheme.

Embraer ERJ 145 of bmi regional.

bmi, formerly known as British Midland, is the second largest airline in the United Kingdom. Based at East Midlands Airport, it flies to destinations across Europe, and to the United States and India. bmi's operational base is London Heathrow, where it holds 14% of all take off and landing slots, and operates over 2000 flights a week. BMI British Midland logo, claiming fair use This work is copyrighted. ... An Airbus A320-200 of British Midland Airways (G-MIDT) on the approach to London (Heathrow) Airport. ... An Airbus A320-200 of British Midland Airways (G-MIDT) on the approach to London (Heathrow) Airport. ... BMI Airbus A321-200 (G-MIDJ) landing at London (Heathrow) Airport. ... BMI Airbus A321-200 (G-MIDJ) landing at London (Heathrow) Airport. ... Download high resolution version (1500x1003, 131 KB) Embraer ERJ 145 (G-CCYH) of bmi regional, landing at Heathrow Airport, London. ... Download high resolution version (1500x1003, 131 KB) Embraer ERJ 145 (G-CCYH) of bmi regional, landing at Heathrow Airport, London. ... A Boeing 747-400 of Virgin Atlantic Airways, one of the UKs largest airlines. ... Nottingham East Midlands Airport (IATA airport code: EMA, ICAO airport code: EGNX) is an airport in the East Midlands of England, near Castle Donington. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... London Heathrow Airport (IATA:LHR, ICAO:EGLL), often referred to simply as Heathrow, is the United Kingdoms busiest and best-connected airport. ...

Code Data

• IATA Code: BD
• ICAO Code: BMA
• Callsign: Midland

The International Air Transport Association is an international trade organization of airlines headquarted in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations, develops the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. ...

History

bmi's roots lie in the formation of Air Schools Ltd in 1938, specialising in flying instruction for RAF pilots. In 1949 the company formed Derby Aviation and Wolverhampton Aviation, based at Burnaston in the Midlands, offering ad-hoc charter and freight flights with De Havilland Rapides, as well as aircraft maintenance and brokerage. The 1950s would see rapid expansion for the company. Flying instruction ceased in 1953 with the start of scheduled flights from Derby and Wolverhampton to Jersey. When the first Douglas DC-3 arrived in 1955, Wolverhampton Aviation had been phased out and the company's sole base became Burnaston Airport. International services commenced in 1956 to Ostend, and holiday flights to mainland Europe began. The company was also contracted by Rolls-Royce to transport aero engines to customers throughout the world, and in 1959 changed its name to Derby Airways. Domestic scheduled flights within the United Kingdom were launched toward the end of the decade. 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force branch of the UK Armed Forces. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... The midlands of a territory are its central regions. ... The de Havilland DH 89 Dragon Rapide was a successful British short-haul passenger airliner of the 1930s. ... Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb. ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Derby (pronounced dar-bee ) is a city in the East Midlands of England. ... Wolverhampton is an industrial, commercial and university city and metropolitan borough in the English West Midlands, traditionally part of the county of Staffordshire. ... Douglas DC-3 VH-AES at Avalon in 2003. ... 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1956 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ostend ( Dutch: Oostende, French: Ostende) is a municipality located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, and in the Flemish province of West Flanders. ... The Rolls Royce logo Rolls-Royce is a set of several companies, all deriving from the British automobile and aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Henry Royce and C.S. Rolls in 1906. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1964 the company changed its name again to British Midland Airways (BMA) and moved operations from Burnaston to the recently opened East Midlands Airport. The corporate colours of blue and white were adopted at that time, with the introduction of the first turboprop aircraft, the Handley Page Herald. Minster Assets, an investment and banking group, acquired the airline in 1968. Domestic and European expansion continued apace, and in 1970 BMA entered the jet age with the introduction of the BAC 1-11, followed by the Boeing 707 in 1971. However, the BAC 1-11s would be withdrawn in 1972 and the 707s leased to other airlines as BMA concentrated on turboprops such as the Vickers Viscount. Though the 707 fleet would be increased, none operate for BMA on scheduled services or charter services on their behalf until [1981], instead they were leased to other operators. The Douglas DC-9 would convert most of the airline's domestic and European service to jet operation with it's introduction in 1976. 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Blue (from Old High German blao shining) is one of the three primary additive colors; blue light has the shortest wavelength range (about 420-490 nm) of the three primary colors. ... White is a color (more accurately it contains all the colors of the spectrum and is sometimes described as an achromatic color—black is the absence of color) that has high brightness but zero hue. ... A diagram showing how a turboprop works. ... The Handley Page Aircraft Company was founded by Frederick Handley Page in 1909. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... The BAC 1-11, or One-Eleven, was a short-range jet airliner designed by Hunting Aircraft and produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) after Hunting was merged with several other British aviation firms in 1960. ... Pan Am 707 The Boeing 707 is a four engined commercial passenger jet aircraft developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... The Viscount was a medium-range turboprop airliner introduced in 1953 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world. ... The Douglas DC-9 is a twin-engined jet airliner, first manufactured in 1965 and, in much modified form and under a succession of different names, still in production today as the Boeing 717. ... 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1978 the company directors successfully purchased the airline from Minster Assets. The consortium included Sir Michael Bishop, now the airline's chairman, and known as the BBW Partnership. That year, British Midland and British Airways agreed to route swapping, resulting in British Midland Airways relinquishing its continental routes from Birmingham to Brussels and Frankfurt and BA handing over its routes from Liverpool to Heathrow, Belfast, Dublin, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Glasgow. Annual passenger numbers topped 1 million for the first time in 1979. 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Sir Michael Bishop (b. ... British Airways is the largest airline of the United Kingdom. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... Emblem of the Brussels-Capital Region Flag of The City of Brussels Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, French: Bruxelles, German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium and is considered by many to be the de facto capital of the European Union, as two of its three main institutions have their headquarters... Frankfurt am Main [ˈfraŋkfʊrt] is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth largest city in Germany. ... Liverpools skyline, as seen from the River Mersey. ... Belfast is the largest city in, and capital of both Northern Ireland and Ulster. ... Dublins Hapenny Bridge. ... Glasgows location in Scotland Glasgow or Glaschù is Scotlands largest city, on the River Clyde in west central Scotland. ... 1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ...

In 1981 an application to fly between Heathrow and Glasgow and [Edinburgh] was denied by CAA. The ruling was overturned, however, after an appeal was lodged with Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. With the introduction of these services, BMA and BA were now in direct competition. 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the name for the national body governing civil aviation in a number of countries. ... The President of the Board of Trade the title of a cabinet position in the United Kingdom government. ...

BMA, together with British & Commonwealth Shipping, formed Manx Airlines in 1982, and the following year BMA purchases a 75% stake in Glasgow-based airline Loganair. In March 1987 Airlines of Britain Holdings (ABH) was formed to act as a holding company for British Midland and British Midland Aviation Services. ABH became British Midland in 1997 when it was de-merged as part of wide restructuring. 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Loganair is an airline based at Glasgow International Airport in Scotland, UK, which operates an extensive domestic route schedule within Scotland and beyond to the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. ... 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

A new look for the airline was unveiled in 1985. Aircraft were painted in very dark blue, deep grey on the lower half of the fuselage with red relief. Now simply known as British Midland, a new logo of a stylised red BM crowned with a diamond shape appears on the aircraft tailfins. Airport lounges were introduced at UK hubs and the Diamond Club frequent flyer programme was launched. The charter market was abandoned and the 707 fleet withdrawn at this time. Boeing 737s were introduced to the fleet in 1987, however it was one of these aircraft that is involved in the airline's only accident to date, when flight BD092 crashed on approach to East Midlands Airport in January 1989, killing 47 people. The aircraft developed a fire in one of the engines en route from Heathrow to Belfast. Though the decision was made to divert to East Midlands, the crew mistakenly shut down the functioning engine, causing the aircraft to lose power and crash on the M1 Motorway just short of the runway. The Kegworth air disaster, as the incident became known, would lead to considerable improvements in aircraft safety and emergency instructions for passengers. The official report into the disaster made 31 safety recommendations. 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gray or grey is a color seen commonly in nature. ... In an aircraft, the fuselage is the main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. ... Red is a color at the lowest frequencies of light discernible by the human eye. ... This shape is a rhombus In geometry, a rhombus (also known as a rhomb) is a quadrilateral in which all of the sides are of equal length. ... 737 in new Boeing Colors. ... 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The M1 is a major north-south motorway in England connecting London to Yorkshire, where it joins the A1(M) near Wetherby. ... A runway is a strip of land on an airport, on which aircraft can take off and land. ... The Kegworth Air Disaster occurred on January 8, 1989, when British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, G-OBME owned by British Midland crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway, short of the runway of East Midlands airport, Leicestershire, close to the village of Kegworth. ...

British Midland become the first airline to offer a vegetarian choice of in-flight meals on UK domestic services, and one of the first airlines in Europe to introduce a vegetarian option, in 1992. Toward the end of the 1990s, British Midland switched to Airbus and Embraer for its fleet renewal programme. For animals adapted to eat primarily plants, sometimes referred to as vegetarian animals, see Herbivore. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Airbus S.A.S. is a commercial aircraft manufacturer based in Toulouse, France. ... Embraer, the Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A., is a Brazilian corporation, founded in 1969. ...

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), a shareholder in British Midland since 1987, sold some of its stake to Lufthansa in 1999 on the condition that British Midland joined the Star Alliance, which it did the following year. The airline joined the Star Alliance in July 2000. In February 2001 a new corporate identity was unveiled, rebranding the airline bmi british midland (though bmi officially doesn't mean anything, it implies 'British Midland International') featuring a brighter blue and replacing the grey with white, bringing a more modern and fresh appearance with sweeping curves. In 2003, british midland was quietly dropped from the brand and the airline is now simply referred to as bmi. The new identity coincided with the launch of transatlantic services to Washington, DC and Chicago from Manchester using wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft. Scandinavian Airlines System, now SAS AB, was founded in 1946 when the flag carriers of Denmark, Sweden and Norway formed a partnership to handle intercontinental traffic to Scandinavia. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Launched on May 14, 1997, the Star Alliance was the first, and remains the largest airline alliance in the world. ... 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... White is a color (more accurately it contains all the colors of the spectrum and is sometimes described as an achromatic color—black is the absence of color) that has high brightness but zero hue. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... Location within the British Isles. ... Air Canada Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a large-capacity medium-to-long-range commercial passenger airliner manufactured by Airbus. ...

In 2002, bmi set up a low-cost subsidiary known as bmibaby, using redundant Boeing 737s which were displaced after bmi's fleet renewal programme favoured an all-Airbus fleet for medium haul and heavy density short haul services. bmibaby flies routes between secondary airports around Europe. 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... bmibaby Boeing 737 bmibaby is a low-cost airline subsidiary of bmi. ...

bmi has fought to gain transatlantic flights from Heathrow. Only British Airways, Air India, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, United Airlines, Kuwait Airways, and Air Canada are permitted to offer such routes. Air India (Hindi: एअर इंडिया) is the national flag carrier of India. ... Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. ... Note: For the arenas named after this company, see American Airlines Arena (Miami, Florida), or American Airlines Center (Dallas, Texas). ... United Airlines Boeing 777 taking off at Schiphol, Amsterdam. ... Kuwait Airways logo Kuwait Airways is Kuwaits national and international airline. ... Air Canada, (IATA: AC, ICAO: ACA, and Callsign: Air Canada) is owned by ACE Aviation Holdings Inc. ...

Although a direct competitor to British Airways on several routes from Heathrow for many years, including shuttle services to Glasgow and Edinburgh, competition between the two carriers has never been fierce and both seem to co-exist peacefully.

bmi launched a new service to Mumbai from London Heathrow in May 2005, after UK and India reached new bilateral air service agreement, and plans to serve Riyadh in September 2005 after British Airways dropped the service due to security issues. The Gateway of India is the citys most recognisable landmark, visited by thousands annually. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... Riyadh from space, April 1994 Minestry of interior Faisaliah Centre King Fahad Int. ...

The airline is owned by the BBW Partnership (Sir Michael Bishop, J Wolfe and S Balmforth) (50% plus 1 share), Lufthansa (30% minus 1 share) and SAS (20%). Lufthansa Boeing 737-300 Lufthansa Airbus A300-B4 Lufthansa Avro RJ85 Lufthansa (Deutsche Lufthansa AG) is the largest German airline company, headquartered in Cologne. ... Scandinavian Airlines System, now SAS AB, is an airline based in Stockholm, Sweden. ...

Services

See bmi destinations This is a list of destinations served by the British airline bmi, previously known as British Midland. ...

Fleet

The Bmi fleet consists of the following aircraft (at June 2005):

• 3 Airbus A330-200
• 8 Airbus A321-200
• 11 Airbus A320-200
• 5 Airbus A319-100 (further 1 on order)
• 2 Fokker F100
• 3 Embraer ERJ-135ER (operated by BMI Regional)
• 9 Embraer ERJ-145EP (operated by BMI Regional)

Air Canada Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a large-capacity medium-to-long-range commercial passenger airliner manufactured by Airbus. ... The Airbus A320 is a short to medium range commercial passenger aircraft manufactured by Airbus. ... The Airbus A320 is a short to medium range commercial passenger aircraft manufactured by Airbus. ... The Airbus A320 is a short to medium range commercial passenger aircraft manufactured by Airbus. ... Fokker F100 of British Midland The Fokker F100 is a small twin-engine regional jet airliner and feederliner from the Fokker company. ... The Embraer ERJ 145 is a twin-engined regional jet plane with 50 seats. ... BMI Regional is an airline based in Aberdeen, United Kingdom. ... The Embraer ERJ 145 is a twin-engined regional jet plane with 50 seats. ...

External links

• BMI British Midland (http://www.flybmi.com/)
• BMI Air Review (http://airreview.members.beeb.net/BMI/index.htm)
• BMI Fleet Detail (http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/bmi_British_Midland?show=all)
• BMI Passenger Opinions (http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/brit_mid.htm)

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free images, sound and other multimedia files. ...