Bristol traveller
 

Not quite correct to say they face no LoCo comp in the Nordic's regional market both Bergen & Trondheim are served by DY with 8 flights each way every day to each destination this on a B738 with 186 seats and this increases outside of the holiday season of Summer SAS also have a similar number to both of the above with a B737.

There are a few routes that are underserved, but bmir are not well know and where they are, they are known for chopping and changing and that in the Nordic market is a big No No's

OTP & regularity (number of flights flown v flights planned) are key drivers for both SAS & DY, in addition DY & increasingly SAS are offering free wifi onboard so bmir will need to find a niche market to make money in Scandinavia

I'm not disagreeing - bmi-r needs to find niche routes to operate, because the -145/-135 fleet can't compete on an ASK cost basis with a B738/A319.

I think that Scandinavia provides more of those niches than other Northern European countries, and it fits neatly around bmi-r's main base at ABZ and their energy-sector strategy. Arguably, they could move bits of the fleet into Eastern Europe (low revenue markets) or Southern Europe (high competition), but then they have to establish satellite facilities, instead of just rotating the frames through ABZ.

The 'old' bmi used to chop and change schedules on routes it was still operating (-GLA, -BFS, -DUB, -AMS) which used to annoy people. New bmi-r seems to either run a route or decide to pull it, which is probably preferable to messing around with frequencies and operating days.

I agree with what's been said about finding niche routes. The challenge is one finding them and then significantly being able to market them effectively. Bmir is a great little company but I'm sceptical about Scandinavian operations . The British airlines have struggled to make ops to/from Scandinavia work . Examples include Bmi routes, EasyJet have axed many forays into the Scandinavian countries like Bergen and the only destination they have really been of any scale on is Copenhagen . Yet the Scandinavian airlines do a lot better in similar markets. Sun air and Flybe maybe exceptions but they are Scandinavian in origin up there ( ie sun air flies BA and flybe Nordic is originally from there)

Bmir need routes that can sustain at least x2 flights a day for the business traveller that will be unattractive to low costers. And between early morning and peak evening find leisure opportunities to fill the gap and utilise aircraft effectively ...

You could argue that eastern europe is low revenue and southern europe is congested. But where does that leave scandinavia?

Cost base is likely to be high, with high prices and taxes (in general) in the Scandinavian countries. Customer base is also spread thin with sparesly populated countries. You also nowadays have not only SAS but also Norwegian fighting a very bloody fight about the customers.

I do hope that BMI find something that works for them, but I don't think that going into Scandinavia is going to be any bit easier than going into anywhere else in Europe. The last company that tried to build themselfs up into Sweden was mentioned before, City Airline, that was bought by Skyways who then went bankrupt. Not exactly a success story, hopefully, BMI will do better.

One could also argue that routes from regional airports in Scandinavia to cities other than their respective national capitals are exactly what bmir needs.

We are looking at a wealthy population living in cities for which the train / road is not competitive to major airports. SAS are focussed on flying to the Nordic capitals, and Norwegian seem little interested in flying overly thin routes with aircraft below about 180 seats - their long haul adventure is presumably taking up a lot of management time. The E135 and E145 by virtue of their small size are geared entirely towards thin routes with consistent (albeit modest) business demand to places outside their national capitals.

KLM / Wideroe have the Norwegian market, and Flybe have the Finnish market. That possibly leaves a gap for a player in Sweden who won't just fly to Stockholm and is prepared to take on Nextjet if necessary.

dj6
 

There are always gaps that can be exploited but bmir face a huge challenge in a) finding them and b) marketing them, not helped by a lack of branding or national identity, the bmir staff by and large don't speak local languages add to that without any locally based staff you are into hotel costs for 3 people for every night, not a massive cost if your running and filling a 180+ aircraft but a fatal overhead cost on a ERJ135/145 that half empty.

Travel Mole confirm new routes already reported here, plus increased frequencies on UK routes:

New routes for bmi regional

bmi regional is marking its second anniversary of operation as an independent airline with further expansion.

The airline's Frankfurt-Karlstad service, which is operated as a codeshare route with Lufthansa, will increase to double daily from August 19.

On September 1, bmi regional will begin two new routes within Europe, introducing services from Berlin (Tegel) and Gothenburg to Kalmar Öland Airport in southern Sweden, six days a week.

Also in September, frequency on the airline's East Midlands-Brussels and Aberdeen-Bristol routes will be increased.

An extra service will be added on Wednesday and Thursday on the Aberdeen-Bristol route, creating a triple-daily service on those days.

There are also plans to add an extra flight on selected days for the East Midlands-Brussels service, again creating a triple-daily service. The exact days the extra flights will operate will be announced shortly.

Monday, July 7, 2014

I was on BRS-MUC and MUC-BRS the last couple of days, I was encouraged by how well loaded the flights were. One was 45/49, which I think is the fullest I've ever seen any -145, let alone a BM one.

One of my fellow passengers didn't understand why the fare spread was so large on BM flights. BM's inventory management seems partly rationale, and partly inherited from the rollercoaster approach of BD from a few years ago.

Sparrow airline
 

Hi
I see an outfit flying in Sweden known as sparrow airline flying under bmi flight numbers out of GSE. Anyone know anything about this??

BMI REGIONAL-2
 

@ east jimmy: It's a virtual airline wet leasing BMR. They're the same outfit that flies KID-ARN (also with a wet leased BMR -145). Formerly known as Flyglinjen.

New routes for bmi regional
 

Any more expansion plans for bmi regional in the pipeline from UK airports.

Or any other news worth mentioning ????

BMI Regional Interview
 

Hello, I have an interview with BMI Regional at Bristol Airport, in the Old Terminal Building. Does anyone know where the Old Terminal Building is? Thanks!

bmiregional interview
 

CoExGal


The Old Terminal Building is situated on the left hand side after turning into the main airport entrance from the A38. I think its called the Admin Building.


Hope this helps and good luck for your interview :-)

Thank You!
 

Thank you for that very helpful information!

bmiregional for Summer 2015


BRS - ABZ goes 3 x Daily Mon - Fri, 3rd flight added Mon, Tue & Fri.
BRS - FRA goes 3 x Daily Mon - Fri, 3rd flight added Mon - Fri and new Sat rotation added.
BRS - MUC new Sat rotation added.
BRS - HAM remains the same as 2014


Hopefully more to added soon........

BMI Regional
 

Seems like a nice airline! Are you a member of Cabin Crew with them, and do you enjoy it?

Is training in Aberdeen, and is it paid? Also, how many weeks is training?

Thanks again!

Is BRS-MXP dropped then for Summer 2015??

NCL - BRU
 

I see the NCL - BRU service is going 3 times a day from 30th March

:D:D:D

Really nice to see BMIr expanding.

How are the LH codeshares going ?


cs

BRS-MXP
 

It looks like BRS-MXP is ending on 24OCT14.

That's a bit of a blow, as I was hoping to use it next March. However, it seemed a slightly anomalous route, being neither a clear business route nor a hubbing route.

Adding Saturday morning rotations to FRA and MUC is going to make a lot of people happy, not least because you'll be able to leave Asia on Friday night and bounce into BRS on Saturday morning for a weekend at home. Yay.