Quite contrary to what the name might intimate, bmi airline is not an airline directed at people with a certain bmi which is body mass index. The bmi part of the airline’s name stands for British Midland Airways, which Incidently, now also owns the british mediterranean airways. This expansion has resulted in bmi airlines becoming the main british airline serving the mediterranean/ aegean/ old world hub. Although the British airlines did not realize right then, what kind of competition was coming in the form of bmi, and was appreciative of the fact that Britain will have an airline for the mid-lands exclusively, leaving the international market to the british airlines.
The story of how all of this actually began is indeed quite interesting. In the late 1930s, before the culmination of world war II, Britain was in desperate need of more trained pilots for the Royal Air Force to protect the royal family in particular, apart from the military forces. That is when the Derby Aviation limited happened. This was a sub set of air schools actually, based in Burnaston and Wolverhampton.
World war ended. The training of the pilots continued. Around the early 1950s the Royal Air Force thought it was saturated with the pilots and mentioned the need of no more trainees. That is when the training sessions ended for ever. How ever, now Britain had a developed air base, with air craft and proper air school, and nothing to do with it. Some air craft maintenance used to be done over there but that is it. This resulted in the initiation of scheduled flights from the 2 bases to Jersey. Later, with the arrival of new aircraft, the base at Burnaston was expanded into an air port. A year later, international flights began. A deal offered by the Rolls Royce to transport their automobiles made the air line more prosperous than ever, and they ended with their first name- the Derby airways. Yes, it was not always known as the bmi airline.
The business began to expand as more air craft was bought and more routes established. Soon the Derby airways realized that the centre of the air fare hub was more towards the midlands, and therefore moved its centre of operations to the newly established east midlands airport. The move also called for a change in the names, and what could be more apt than British Midland Airways, shortened as bmi airlines.
Even then, the bmi flights were more on the routes of Birmingham to Frankfurt. A deal was made with the british airways, and this route was given to them in exchange for the Liverpool- Heathrow, Belfast, Dublin and Jersey route, resulting in the first million passengers a year that year. BMI realized the importance of competition in business and hence applied for the Glasgow and Edinburgh route and did not give up even after being denied by Civil Aviation authority. The decision was challenged in the ministry of Trade and Industry and permission was granted.
Early 1980s saw a new dawn, when bmi airlines bought 75% shares in Logan air, and formed Manx airline with british shipping corporation. Frequent flyers on the bmi flights became the member of the diamond club, the frequent flyer club of bmi airlines, and the airport lounges as well. BMI was also the first airline to offer an all vegetarian meal option, in the entire europe.
However, the name still was not bmi. On the condition that british midland joins the star alliance, Scandinavian airlines sold its shares in the airlines to Lufthansa. This resulted in rebranding of the airline as BMI British Midland International.
Today bmi flights have code share agreements with quite a few airlines, in addition to the members of the star alliance group itself.
