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Nigel Turner, CEO of bmi said that despite a difficult year for everyone in the airline industry, the Tel Aviv route had proved to be a very successful one for the company “While we cannot make people travel business class, we will do all that we can to entice business travelers to use bmi.

Turner made his first visit to Israel in March 2008 for the launch of the company’s daily service between London Heathrow and Tel Aviv.  Demand on the route has been so great that one year later, despite the difficult economic conditions, he has returned to Tel Aviv for the launch of bmi’s second daily flight on this route. 

At a press conference held in Tel Aviv to launch the upgraded service, Turner discussed a number of issues, including the current dispute with El Al, which resulted in Israel’s national carrier taking legal action to prevent the second daily flight. Turner said that this was not the first time in the company’s 70 year history that such action had been taken against bmi. He said that bmi would continue to provide quality service at competitive prices regardless of the decision of the courts, adding that if the legal decision went against bmi, it would be the customer who would suffer the consequences, by losing out on the competitive pricing and a convenient flight schedule offered by the company.

According to Turner competition on the route was a good thing and he would be happy to see low cost airlines flying the London to Tel Aviv route.  Nevertheless he felt that on a 5 hour flight, the cost of aviation fuel was a significant cost factor and therefore made it difficult for such companies to compete. 

Despite the current economic recession and its effect on the airline industry, bmi’s decision to increase its service to Israel would remain unaffected.  Turner said “While demand for business travel has definitely gone down, we aim to do the maximum to persuade existing business customers to fly bmi and to increase our share of the market.”

Turner said that bmi was also interested in agreeing a code share with an Israeli airline and commented that talks had already taken place with Israir.

He said that Lufthansa’s purchase of an additional 50 percent of bmi shares would be completed as soon as EC approval had been received.  Once completed, this deal would increase Lufthansa’s holdings in the company to 80 percent.

Since introducing their service to Tel Aviv a year ago, bmi have upgraded aircraft type in order to increase flight capacity.  The current service uses the Airbus 321, however from 3rd May, bmi will upgrade to the larger wide-bodied Airbus A330.

From that date, bmi will provide three cabin classes; Business, Premium Economy and Economy.  Among other things, the Business class service will include complimentary Chauffeur Drive service at both ends of the route, access to a special arrivals lounge at Heathrow Airport, an onboard chef and fully-flat beds with 2.08 meter legroom.   Premium Economy will provide seats with 1.27 meters of legroom; in a separate cabin, while the regular Economy service would provide 81 centimeter leg room.

Daily Flight schedule from Tel Aviv to London

BD762 departs  Tel Aviv 06:30 arrives London Heathrow (Terminal 1) 10:00

BD764 departs Tel Aviv 19:20 arrives London Heathrow (Terminal 1) 22:50

Daily Flight schedule from London to Tel Aviv

BD761 departs London Heathrow (Terminal 1) 11:15 arrives Tel Aviv 18:05

BD763 departs London Heathrow (Terminal 1) 21:55 arrives Tel Aviv 04:45