Flying a narrow body, wheezy A321 to a ****hole in africa or the near east to stay for 48 hours, is NOT longhaul.
And beyond!
Longhaul has many definitions.
Moscow might seem an odd one to bmi pilots. What were the BHX-JFK and GLA-JFK 757 ops classed as? And if the A321 is a "wheezy narrowbody" what do you call a 32 seater A318 doing 7 hour transatlantics?
An A321 may seem an odd plane to take long distance but it burns a fraction of the wide-bodies. Look how many American carriers now regularly use 757s out of Heathrow.
Not intended to fan the flames but to fly from London to the border of China, nightstop 24h or 48h, and do the return is hardly a shorthaul op is it?