Is this just another rumour of the spotters at SEN or are Bmi hoping to operate a service from SEN the moment it either improves the terminal or gets a peice of tarmac where aircraft can park and Bmi will provide the rest. I know that Bmi operated at SEN a few years ago but FLYbe then went on to do the service. Flyber start their summer flights there again around may but have encouraged SEN commtiee to do up the existing terminal and FLYbe will start a small scheduled flight. Please can someone update me on the progress and any comments about the airport, route or any other rumours you have heard.

Yawn! HZ123. Do give it a rest! Not another contrived post on Southend!

more importantly, how about a posting on the new Civil Aircraft Markings 2005, one of the spotters told me it would be out soon - can anyone confrim this, or have any other rumours about the new numbers contained therein? Someone told me there would be more microlight numbers in it this year?

Whilst I'm sure many of us do appreciate the "quick wit" of Red Four, I do understand that HZ123 is interested in his local airport, and I really think that Four's comments were uncalled for.

SEN has a lot of work which needs to be done to it before the airport can recieve regular flights with 737/320 sized aircraft, I'm not aware if the terminal is being refurbished yet, or what the current status is with the runway & taxiway, but I do know that SEN is looking at a number of airlines to try to convince them to fly from SEN due to the increasing lack of slots at LTN & STN.

With regards more specifically to bmi, my guess is that they won't be arriving in the close future. bmi did not make a profit last year, and there are rumours of big management & operations shake ups for the next few months, so I think if bmi mainline/regional is going to expand, it will be from their existing bases, or taking over routes from baby. There is a rumour that bmi is considering a number of baby routes that mainline do not fly, such as AGP/MJV/BCN are being considered by mainline from LHR/MAN.

Any news on this? Or just another fruitless, but potentially good new service ... :hmm:

That's news to me bmibaby.com.

True the place is getting busier and overnight parking can get a bit difficult (although they did accept 8 x Ryanair 737's a couple of weeks ago) but I think you'll find there are no slot problems at Luton.