The airline, bought by Lufthansa in October 2008, made record losses of £155m that year and suffered another tough 12 months last year. As a result, chief executive Wolfgang Prock-Schauer has confirmed plans to cut 800 jobs in an effort to save up to £100m per year.
Bmi is also set to cut a quarter of its capacity, reducing its cherished share of Heathrow airport landing slots from 12% to 10%, although it retains the second-largest presence at Heathrow after British Airways. .
To improve consideration with overseas consumers, particularly those based in the Middle East, the airline is to begin using the British Midland branding in its marketing for the first time since rebranding to bmi in 2001.
According to Prock-Schauer, consumers in the Middle East did not know what bmi stood for, whereas the use of ‘British' in advertising activity would help emphasise quality.
However, a bmi spokesman denied that the airline is fully rebranding to British Midland, saying that in the UK, the carrier will continue to be know as bmi. He added that its fleet of aircraft would not be repainted.
. Its above-the-line ad account is handled by M&C Saatchi, with media handled by MPG.
.jpg)
.jpeg)
