16 January 2009

Bmi to rival BA on Kiev route

Bmi has won approval to compete with British Airways between Heathrow and Kiev.

The carrier gained approval to start the service following Civil Aviation Authority hearing.

Bmi was awarded five extra flights a week that were available following a recent agreement by the UK and Ukraine governments to allow more capacity.

BA failed in a bid for the five extra frequencies.

Bmi did not say when it would start operating the route to the Ukrainian capital.

CEO Nigel Turner said: "Bringing in new competition from Bmi rather than allocating the capacity to the incumbent carrier will clearly produce more benefit to consumers, bring prices down and provide an improved product offering to both business and leisure passengers.

"A new competitive service from Bmi will not only be a boon for point-to-point travellers between Heathrow and Kiev, but will also provide a wide range of connecting services at Heathrow onto Bmi domestic services as well as flights of Star Alliance partner airlines.

"Now that we have clarification on our access to this route we can now focus in more detail about the introduction of services and will be making a further announcement in due course about our plans to serve this market."

by Phil Davies