Bmi regional is on course for its best year since a change of ownership in 2012, the airline’s boss said yesterday.
Cathal O’Connell, the Aberdeen-based carriers’ chief executive, told the Press and Journal a sharp rise in the number of passengers on its Granite City routes was helping to make it a record year for the fledgling business.
Nearly 150,000 people have already flown with bmi regional to or from the north-east this year, a 20% increase on 2013, he said.
Mr O’Connell added the airline was still in consolidation mode after a period of transformation, but the future – particularly for its charter activities – looked bright.
Corporate hires, leasing to other airlines and ad-hoc charter flights are a growing business for bmi regional and the carrier is dedicating more planes to this work.
Meanwhile, staff numbers in Aberdeen have swollen by 10% since the start of the year to 140 – about 40% of the company’s total workforce.
Mr O’Connell said the airline was currently “looking at options” for new routes but would not say if any of them involved Aberdeen.
He also said he was not too concerned about recent Civil Aviation Agency figures showing the average bmi regional flight last year was just over half full. Load factor figures for several other carriers flying out of Aberdeen were worse.
“We have many flights that are running full and others that are less than half full,” he said, adding that it was not unusual to have peaks and troughs in demand across the schedule.
Bmi regional’s current load factors were the highest since the business changed hands just over two years ago, he said.
The airline faced an uncertain future until businessmen Ian Woodley, Graeme Ross and Robert Sturman – backed by aviation entrepreneurs Peter and Stephen Bond – acquired it from British Airways’ parent, International Airlines Group (IAG) in a deal worth £8million.
IAG had bought it, together with bmi’s mainline operation, three years earlier from Germany’s Lufthansa, but then threatened to axe it if it could not sell it on.
Mr Woodley recently stepped down as chairman, with Stephen Bond taking over the role, but is still on the board. Mr Ross is bmi regional’s business development director and Mr Sturman is no longer involved.
Bmi regional launched some new Scandinavian routes earlier this year.
Last year, the airline started flights from Aberdeen to both Oslo and Kristiansund.
It also operates services from the Granite City to Bristol, Esbjerg in Denmark, Manchester and Norwich.
The twice daily weekday service to Bristol will soon grow to two flights a day on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays and three on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Mr O’Connell said: “Thus far in 2014 we have seen significant traffic growth across our route network, especially Bristol and our oil and gas services from Aberdeen.
“We expect this to continue through the rest of the year.
“Last year saw significant development and investment to establish our standalone business and we’ve since expanded the network, both within (mainland) Europe and from the UK, and established partnerships with global carriers.”
He added: “In only two years we have successfully established a sustainable airline business which provides vital domestic and international links for business and leisure travellers, fosters inward investment, supports tourism and continues to create employment opportunities.”