News from May 2009

bmibaby celebrates 1 millionth East Midlands passenger

Published: 12 May 2009

Low cost airline bmibaby is pleased to welcome its one millionth passenger travelling on its popular service between Belfast International and East Midlands Airport. Jenny Harney and daughter Grace from Armagh were the lucky recipients of two return flights on the new bmibaby service from Belfast International to Prague.

Low cost airline bmibaby is pleased to welcome its one millionth passenger travelling on its popular service between Belfast International and East Midlands Airport. Jenny Harney and daughter Grace from Armagh were the lucky recipients of two return flights on the new bmibaby service from Belfast International to Prague.

bmibaby started flying from Belfast to East Midlands Airport in October 2002 and now operate 12 flights a week from Belfast International to East Midlands.  This route has been popular with leisure and business travellers, and those wishing to visit friends and family.  In addition the airline has flights from Belfast to Birmingham International Airport 15 times a week, to Manchester Airport 14 times a week, and to Cardiff Airport six times a week.  In total bmibaby operate 100 flights a week to and from Belfast International Airport.

bmibaby recently went on sale with its winter 2009 - 2010 flying programme, enabling passengers to book their flights from 25 October until 28 March 2010.  The airline also announced its first international route to Prague from Belfast, commencing in the winter season.  bmibaby is currently the only airline to fly this route directly from Belfast, and expects to carry over 15,000 passengers on the service.

Crawford Rix, managing director, bmibaby said:

"We are proud to welcome our millionth passenger from Belfast International Airport to East Midlands today.  We launched flights from Belfast in October 2002 and seven years on, we continue to see a high demand for low cost travel to and from the region.

"We recently announced the launch of our first international route from Belfast International Airport to Prague for winter 2009 -w w 2010, this service starts on 04 December 2009.  We anticipate it will be an extremely popular route and we look forward to further developing our flying programme from Belfast International Airport.  bmibaby is committed to providing low cost flights from Belfast and a high quality onboard service."

Uel Hoey, business development director, Belfast International Airport, said:

 "We are delighted to be celebrating this milestone with bmibaby today.  East Midlands has been a strong route for many years and we welcome bmibaby's commitment to Northern Ireland in not only providing low fares and frequent service to four major cities in Great Britain, but also through the welcome introduction of Prague, which will not only be a key route for local travellers, but also provides a direct link for businesses and tourists from the Czech Republic into Northern Ireland and the surrounding region".

Jenny and Grace Harney are pictured with Deborah Matchett from Belfast International Airport.