Bmi has today (3 January) announced that from the start of the summer schedule on 30 March the daily service from Heathrow to Inverness will be cancelled and flights between Heathrow and Leeds Bradford will reduce to four-times daily with the suspension of the late evening flight.
”Charges such as the punitive APD (air passenger duty) that affect domestic travellers in particular have made fares higher,” said bmi managing director, Peter Spencer. ”The inflation-busting airport charge increases that have been implemented at Heathrow over the last few years ” which are set to grow even faster from April 2008 ” puts further pressure on short-haul services like Inverness.
”We acknowledge the efforts that Inverness Airport has made to assist bmi in the continuation of the route through the level of fees at Inverness Airport. We also appreciate their lobbying regarding proposed fees and increases at Heathrow and the disproportionate structure of charging adopted by BAA. However, despite these efforts the route is just not a viable proposition due to the cost of the operation and the limited passenger volumes that it attracts.”
Spencer added: ”We are very disappointed that there has been insufficient demand to operate a viable profitable operation on this route but load factors have not been sufficiently high enough to sustain the service.”
The summer-only services to Alicante and Nice will not operate in 2008.
Despite these cuts, bmi has doubled the number of services between Heathrow and Moscow Domodedovo from 30 March and the new timetable will also see additional flights between Heathrow and both Manchester and Durham Tees Valley.
Bmi is offering passengers with reservations on cancelled flights a full refund or rebooking on alternative routes.