BMI cuts jobs and routes in restructuring
AILING airline BMI is slashing 600 jobs and axing five of its Heathrow routes as it strives to cut costs, it said yesterday.
The carrier will also start handing back its leased aircraft, it said, blaming the recession and the fall-off in demand for travel.
BMI will stop flying to Brussels, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo in January, and its route to Amsterdam will be scrapped in March next year.
“Cutting these routes is significant for BMI,” Astaire Securities’ Douglas McNeill said yesterday. “The airline has been building itself up as a mid-haul airline, so saying it will no longer fly to Tel Aviv, Kiev and so on is a signal that that’s not working,” he added.
The struggling carrier, which is owned by Germany’s Lufthansa, had warned that it could go under unless it raised an extra £190m in funding.
Its parent airline, which has failed to find a buyer for BMI, will put up £95m and hopes to raise a further £95m by selling off its coveted Heathrow slots. It is currently the second-largest operator at Heathrow.
It lost £155m last year and is facing a further £200m loss this year.
BMI, which said its workforce was being cut across the airline, also warned that further job cuts could be necessary as it fights for survival.
The carrier’s low-cost arm, bmi baby, has announced 158 job-losses.
The Unite union said that announcing the cuts just before Christmas was insensitive and cast doubt on other areas of bmi’s business.
“Unite understands the need to cut costs, but job losses seem to be the kneejerk reaction,” said Brian Boyd, the union’s national officer for civil aviation.
Airline pilots’ union BALPA said it would work with bmi to try to avoid compulsory job cuts.