bmi, the British carrier that has been in the news a lot lately thanks to their recent sale to Lufthansa, made more news today, announcing that they will be pulling out of the Americas effective in the Spring of ‘09. The carrier currently operates flights from Manchester, UK to Chicago, Las Vegas and Barbados. Chicago flights will end in mid-January and the Las Vegas and Barbados flights will end in late April, after the Easter holidays.
The planes are coming up on a heavy maintenance check period and the carrier doesn’t have spares to sub in. Plus long-haul flying got pretty expensive when fuel prices spiked over the summer. And with the current/impending implosion of the US economy I’m really not all that surprised that the carrier has decided to reallocate the planes to routes in the Middle East, where it seems there is still plenty of money to spend.
I’m saddened mostly because I never got to fly them while they were here, and now it seems that I never will. Then again, I’ve been looking at visits to Egypt and Jordan, and the planes will be moving to those routes, so maybe I will get to fly on them after all. Hope springs eternal.
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