A bit more detail today
Company Announcement to bmi Staff today,
Dear Colleague
I am thrilled to let you know that a landmark decision has today been made in Brussels that creates the opportunity for us to serve the US from our mainline base at Heathrow. EU Ministers of Transport have today voted in favour of a deal that enables any EU airline to serve any US destination from any EU airport. The effect of this new deal removes the 30 year old Bermuda II agreement that had limited to just two UK and two US carriers serving this market from Heathrow.
This is a landmark moment in world aviation and opens up tremendous opportunities to gain further access to the UK/US air market, a market that represents over 40 per cent of the total EU/US traffic. First and foremost we must applaud Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport, for supporting the agreement in the key vote taken today at a meeting of the EU’s 27 Member States’ transport ministers in Brussels.
The UK Government has taken the interests of UK plc and the UK travelling public seriously in supporting this open skies agreement. This was a brave move in the face of stiff opposition from the two UK airlines that have for years enjoyed a protected transatlantic market from Heathrow.
We are now ideally placed to take advantage of this major breakthrough and turn into reality our long held ambition to commence services to the US from Heathrow. I am convinced that as in the past we will have a major impact not only on point-to-point traffic, but also on network competition from our wide range of domestic, European and other longhaul services.
We have been keeping potential US routes under review for some time and will now be discussing the possibilities with the Board over the coming weeks. As soon as we are in a position to make a firm announcement about our plans I will let you know.
kind regards
Nigel Turner