Bmibaby

bmibaby

IATA ICAO Call sign WW BMI BABY
Founded	24 January 2002 (2002-01-24)
Commenced operations	22 June 2002 (2002-06-22)
Ceased operations	9 September 2012 (2012-09-09)
Operating bases	Birmingham East Midlands
Frequent-flyer program	BMI Diamond Club
Parent company	British Midland International
Headquarters	Donington Hall, Castle Donington, England, United Kingdom
Key people	Wolfgang Prock-Schauer (CEO) Stefan Lauer (Chairman) Peter Simpson (Managing Director)

Bmibaby Limited (styled as bmibaby.com) was a British low-cost airline that flew to destinations in the United Kingdom and Europe from its bases at Birmingham and East Midlands airports. It was a subsidiary of British Midland International, itself wholly owned by International Airlines Group (IAG). Bmibaby's head office was at Donington Hall in Castle Donington, North West Leicestershire, England. Bmibaby held a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, and was permitted to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

Following the takeover of BMI and its subsidiaries by IAG in April 2012, it was announced on 3 May 2012 that Bmibaby would be shut down in September 2012, with many flights ceasing to operate with effect from 11 June. Bmibaby's final flight, from Málaga to East Midlands, operated on 9 September 2012.

History

The airline was established on 24 January 2002 and began operations on 22 March 2003 with a flight between East Midlands and Málaga.

Boeing 737-500 taxiing in 2009

Continued expansion for the airline led to it opening further bases at Cardiff in October 2002, Manchester in May 2003, Durham Tees Valley in October 2003, Birmingham in January 2005. and Belfast City Airport in March 2012. Insufficient passenger numbers led to the closure of the Durham Tees Valley base in 2006, followed by both Cardiff and Manchester in 2011 to make way for expansion in the Midlands and the new base at Belfast City.

On 1 March 2007, the airline announced an initiative for business travellers with an "only choose what you need" approach, allowing passengers to choose from a range of services such as ticket flexibility, executive lounge access and on-line check in, and only pay for the services they used. The company also announced that BMI's frequent flyers could now gain Diamond Club miles.

By 2007, Bmibaby had nine Boeing 737 aircraft based at East Midlands Airport, making it their biggest base, however in December 2008 the airline announced that it would be suspending five routes from the airport as a result of a reduction in the number of customers booking city-breaks.

Boeing 737-300 departing Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in 2012

Further cuts were announced in November 2009 when it was announced that the fleet would be reduced from 17 to 12 aircraft in 2010, with up to 158 jobs at risk of redundancy. The airline said the action was necessary to stem record losses and that it would focus on growth routes best fit for the business.

In April 2011, Bmibaby announced it would close its bases at Cardiff and Manchester Airports in October 2011 to increase services at Birmingham and East Midlands Airports as well as opening a new base at Belfast City Airport, moving from Belfast International Airport where the airline was based for several years.

Donington Hall, the head office of Bmibaby

In May 2011, Bmibaby launched what it called the first European airline loyalty programme tied into a location-based social network. Passengers use the Gowalla smartphone application at Bmibaby check-in desks to collect points.

On 22 December 2011, IAG announced it had agreed a contract with Lufthansa to buy BMI. The contract allowed for Lufthansa to sell BMI Regional and Bmibaby separately before the completion of the main sale, although the price payable by IAG would be reduced if the airlines were not sold. On 2 February 2012, BMI announced it had signed a "non-binding and non-exclusive" agreement with a "UK-based company", with plans to complete the sale by the summer of 2012. The sale was not completed by the time IAG purchased BMI, and so Bmibaby and BMI Regional became part of the group. IAG said it would continue the attempts to sell both airlines.

However, on 3 May 2012 IAG announced that it had not found a buyer for Bmibaby and that it was proposing to shut down the company by 9 September 2012. Flights to some destinations such as Belfast, Amsterdam, Paris and Geneva ended on 11 June 2012. All remaining services ended by 9 September 2012. The final flight to operate was flight WW5330 from Malaga to East Midlands. Over 800 jobs were lost by the closure, including 400 at the head office in Castle Donington.

After its closure, WOW air took the WW IATA code while the ICAO code BMI remains unused.

Destinations

Bmibaby served the following destinations before its closure on 9 September 2012:

Country/Territory	City	Airport	Notes	Ref
Austria	Salzburg	Salzburg Airport	Terminated
Channel Islands	Jersey	Jersey Airport
Croatia	Dubrovnik	Dubrovnik Airport
Czech Republic	Prague	Václav Havel Airport Prague
Denmark	Copenhagen	Copenhagen Airport	Terminated
France	Bordeaux	Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport	Terminated
	Chambéry	Chambéry Airport	Terminated
	Lourdes	Tarbes–Lourdes–Pyrénées Airport	Terminated
	Montpellier	Montpellier–Méditerranée Airport	Terminated
	Nice	Nice Côte d'Azur Airport
	Paris	Charles de Gaulle Airport	Terminated
	Perpignan	Perpignan–Rivesaltes Airport
	Toulouse	Toulouse–Blagnac Airport	Terminated
Germany	Cologne / Bonn	Cologne Bonn Airport	Terminated
	Munich	Munich Airport	Terminated
Gibraltar	Gibraltar	Gibraltar International Airport	Seasonal
Greece	Corfu	Corfu International Airport	Terminated
Ireland	Cork	Cork Airport	Terminated
	Dublin	Dublin Airport	Terminated
	Knock	Ireland West Airport	Terminated
Italy	Alghero	Alghero–Fertilia Airport	Seasonal
	Naples	Naples International Airport	Seasonal
	Rome	Rome Fiumicino Airport
	Venice	Venice Marco Polo Airport
	Verona	Verona Villafranca Airport	Seasonal
Malta	Valletta	Malta International Airport	Seasonal
Netherlands	Amsterdam	Amsterdam Airport Schiphol	Terminated
Portugal	Faro	Gago Coutinho Airport
	Lisbon	Humberto Delgado Airport	Seasonal
Spain	Alicante	Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport
	Almería	Almería Airport	Seasonal
	Barcelona	Josep Tarradellas Barcelona–El Prat Airport
	Ibiza	Ibiza Airport	Seasonal
	Málaga	Málaga Airport
	Menorca	Menorca Airport
	Murcia	Murcia–San Javier Airport
	Palma de Mallorca	Palma de Mallorca Airport
Switzerland	Geneva	Geneva Airport	Terminated
Switzerland France Germany	Basel Mulhouse Freiburg	EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg	Terminated
United Kingdom	Aberdeen	Aberdeen Airport	Terminated
	Belfast	George Best Belfast City Airport	Terminated
		Belfast International Airport	Terminated
	Birmingham	Birmingham Airport	Base
	Bournemouth	Bournemouth Airport	Terminated
	Bristol	Bristol Airport	Terminated
	Cardiff	Cardiff Airport	Terminated
	East Midlands	East Midlands Airport	Base
	Edinburgh	Edinburgh Airport	Terminated
	Glasgow	Glasgow Airport	Terminated
	London	Gatwick Airport	Terminated
		London Stansted Airport	Terminated
	Manchester	Manchester Airport	Terminated
	Newquay	Cornwall Airport Newquay	Terminated
	Teesside	Teesside International Airport	Terminated

Fleet

Boeing 737-300 landing at Barcelona El Prat Airport in 2010

As of September 2012, the Bmibaby fleet consisted of the following aircraft in an all-economy class configuration:

Bmibaby fleet

Aircraft	Total	Passengers (Economy)
Boeing 737-300	12	148
Boeing 737-500	2	131
Total	14

Several aircraft had names with the word baby in the title. After all flights ceased, the aircraft were placed in storage at Norwich International Airport and Lasham Airfield. The majority of the airline's fleet was leased. As of November 2014, all the fleet had moved on from Bmibaby, one had been scrapped (G-OBMP) and the last one partly remains with some of the fuselage in some trees at Bruntingthorpe (G-BVKB).

Services

Onboard

Bmibaby offered a buy on board programme with variety of items to purchase including scratch-cards, tax-free shopping and onboard drinks and snacks. The shopping range included items such as jewellery and fragrances, gifts and travel accessories. On non-EU flights, duty-free priced cigarettes and spirits could be purchased. Drinks and snack items included hot and cold drinks, alcoholic and soft drinks as well as crisps, sandwiches and confectionery. The drinks and snack menu was named the Tiny Bites menu. The Bmibaby inflight magazine was known as Yeah baby!

The majority of Bmibaby's cabins had shaded blue leather seating with a 29/30" seat pitch. Extra legroom seats could be found on the front rows and on over-wing exit rows of all the Bmibaby 737 aircraft.

Telephone booking

In addition to online booking on the bmibaby.com website; Bmibaby employed 20-30 customer service representatives to take telephone queries and bookings. Prior to November 2005 the team were located in Glasgow. From November 2005, the team was based in Belfast working in the TeleTech customer contact centre. The call centre was then moved to Delhi, India and remained there until the firm's closure in 2012.

Sponsorship

Bmibaby began to sponsor regional weather forecasts on ITV from shortly after the airline's launch, starting in the Central region in 2002 and ending in the Granada region in early 2005. The sponsorship lasted for several years until new sponsorships took over between 2009 & 2011.

See also

• List of defunct airlines of the United Kingdom

External links

Media related to Bmibaby at Wikimedia Commons

• bmibaby tribute video