BMI HAS CONFIRMED a return to its British Midland International name, but stopped short of a full rebranding. Marketing material will now carry the sub-branding British Midland International, but a BMI spokesman said: "We will not be repainting aircraft."
BMI's new German chief executive, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, has ordered changes to the airline's marketing materials after admitting that the BMI name is not easily recognisable in some areas that the carrier has only recently begun to serve, particularly the Middle East.
"It is more of a marketing strap line than anything," said a spokesman. "It's to help identify us in newer markets where BMI did not mean much." British Midland became BMI in 2001, when the then-chairman Sir Michael Bishop revamped the Castle Donnington-based airline to give it a more international image ahead of a move into long-haul. However, Bishop denied then that BMI was an acronym or that it stood for British Midland International.