bmi british midland is delighted to announce the birth of its new no frills airline, bmibaby, which was born today at East Midlands Airport. The baby’s birthday suit will be unveiled at an official party next week, along with a celebratory launch promotion.

The party will be hosted by bmibaby’s new guardian and managing director, Tony Davis, who said:

“I am thrilled to be responsible for bmi’s new offspring and have been delighted by the overwhelming response from the public, that we have had to our announcement, launching the East Midlands’ own no frills airline. Indeed the response has been so great, I am extremely confident that we will be able to extend even further, our range of destinations on offer, through our ability to bring further aircraft into the fleet of bmibaby.

“I am also looking forward to the competition that bmibaby will bring to the East Midlands. Indeed, I fully understand why Go has thrown its toys out of the pram.

“Their disappointment must surely be because their desperate attempts to pre-empt our own plans, with an announcement of unspecific promises of phantom services at East Midlands Airport, did not thwart our own long held ambition to launch a no frills airline.

“Go must now surely cut the rhetoric and put its money where its mouth is. Now is the time to tell the people of the East Midlands just when and where they will fly. The commitment of bmi has always been clear and we have never shirked away from competition - a quality that will definitely be inherited by bmibaby.”

Austin Reid, chief executive officer of bmi british midland, also commented:

“I am delighted to be able to announce the appointment of Tony Davis as managing director of our new no frills airline and am confident that he is ideally suited to this new role. Tony has a wide range of experience in the airline industry, most recently as our director of government and corporate relations. We are committed to providing genuine competition to consumers in a wide range of markets, including the niche market of no frills travel. bmi british midland, at the same time, maintains its commitment, as a full service airline, to the development of our services in Europe and to the USA, particularly from our main operating hubs at Heathrow and Manchester.”

bmibaby will be flying a dedicated fleet of Boeing 737-300 aircraft and serve an extensive range of key leisure destinations, including high frequency services to Barcelona, Nice, Palma, Malaga, Faro and Alicante. Internet fares on bmibaby will start at just £25 each way, and services will commence on 23 March - a week before the Easter Bank Holiday. Seats on bmibaby will be on sale later this month.

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