bmi officially launches route to Addis

By Alemayehu Seife Selassie

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - A Star Alliance Member airline, bmi, has officially inaugurated its service in Addis Ababa this week. The airline, which has been operational in Ethiopia as of October 2007, has had five flights from Addis Ababa to London Heathrow.

Months after its service began in Addis Ababa, Colin Carter, Divisional Manager of the bmi Group for Africa and the Middle East, briefed journalists this week that the airline has started its five-day flight to Addis Ababa, as it maintains its status as the second largest airline at London Heathrow. With the integration of BMED routes, bmi now operates over 1,800 flights a week across its full network. Over the last year alone, the company had a turnover of 2.1 Billion USD. In 2007, the airline carried 10.5 million passengers. This year the representative stated that he hopes to set the record even higher.

“Last October, bmi made a very fundamental change to its routs, and effectively our network from Heathrow has doubled,” said Carter. Dominated by Air Bus airplanes, the airline has added a few Boeing airplanes to its fleet.
As Britain’s second largest airline, bmi has excelled over the years. 51 percent of the shares are owned by Sir Michael Bishop, 29 percent by Lufthansa Airlines, and 20 percent by SAS Systems. The company is one of the largest privately owned airlines operating in the world today.

With a national flag carrier bringing the majority of the country’s budget, it is only natural to have the concern as to whether a foreign airline would bring prosperity or bad news to the locals. According to Carter, “There are good schools of examples where good airline transport length brings prosperity to the people. That means it brings investment, employment and hopefully it will improve the whole standard of living.

“We offer another destination that is popular among the people of Ethiopia; we offer connectivity to other parts of the world, so nothing about our arrival in this market is bad. It is all positive for this country,” Mr. Carter said.
Clarifying the perception that bmi is related to British Airways, the divisional manager also informed journalists saying, “Yes, we are a British airline; but we have absolutely nothing to do with British Airways. We are in fierce competition with British Airways.”

bmi is a member of Star Alliance, established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to allow customers worldwide to have a smooth travel experience. Star Alliance was voted Best Airline Alliance by Business Traveler Magazine in 2003 and 2006, and by Skytrax in 2003, 2005 and 2007. The members are Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, THAI, United and US Airways. Regional member carriers Adria Airways (Slovenia), Blue1 (Finland) and Croatia Airlines enhance the global network.

Air China, Shanghai Airlines and Turkish Airlines have all been accepted as future members and are expected to join Star Alliance soon. Overall, the Star Alliance network offers more than 16,000 daily flights to 855 destinations in 155 countries.