bmi, Heathrow”s second largest airline, is to put on larger aircraft in a bid to help BA passengers caught out by a cabin crew strike on Tuesday/Wednesday 30 and 31 January.
To meet demand, the airline plans to increase its capacities at the airport by placing larger aircraft on existing flights. bmi also aims to increase frequencies by utilizing the take-off and landing slot availability created by BA flight cancellations.
Nigel Turner, bmi CEO said: "Air travellers have had to endure two periods of considerable disruption in the last six months alone at Heathrow. On both of these occasions, bmi pulled out all the stops to minimize inconvenience to our customers as opposed to total route cancellations by our major competitor.
"We are determined that during any period of British Airways flight cancellations we will get passengers to their destination on the services of bmi wherever possible. Where practical, we will be opening up more capacity on exiting services to accommodate additional demand for seats. We will also operate additional services when more take-off and landing slots become available due to BA cancellations.
"The message is clear ” if you are travelling to destinations that are served by both ourselves and BA, then we are doing all we can to make sure that you can make a reservation with us in advance. We are also working to ensure we can accommodate passengers on the day."
bmi operates to the following key destinations which are also served by BA from Heathrow: Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lyon, Manchester, Moscow and Paris. The airline flies to Durham Tees Valley, an alternative to BA”s Newcastle. It also serves Venice and Dublin from Heathrow, routes BA operate out of Gatwick.