Bmibaby closes Birmingham routes

Thursday 27th November 2008

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Bmibaby are suspending five routes from Birmingham in summer 2009.

Routes to Rome, Lisbon, Milan, Madrid and Bordeaux are being closed between March 29th and October 24th leaving the budget airline with 16 routes from Birmingham Airport next summer.

Bmibaby is also dropping routes from Manchester to Madrid and East Midlands to Prague next year.

The closures will result in 65 job losses at Birmingham and five more at East Midlands.

The airline declared it would be initiating a 30 day consultation period with staff and union representatives "in order to minimise the impact of potential compulsory job losses".

A spokesman said: "These seasonal summer 2009 routes are being suspended in response to a weakening of consumer demand, which is being impacted upon by the current economic climate and its unpredictability.

"Travellers are now booking to fly to typical sun destinations for their annual holiday, rather than flying to the more impulsive short-break city destinations.

"In sharp contrast, the key Mediterranean routes from Birmingham are performing extremely well and bmibaby will continue to operate flights to the following destinations: Malaga, Alicante, Faro, Palma Mallorca, Nice, Barcelona, Murcia, Amsterdam, Prague, Edinburgh, Belfast International, Glasgow International, Ireland West Knock, Cork, Aberdeen and Geneva."

Bmibaby said they would be offering full refunds or free flight transfers to customers who booked for the closing routes.