Low cost airline bmibaby has signed a 12 month partnership with Football League Championship contenders, Birmingham City Football Club.

With a number of new routes planned for summer 2012, the partnership allows bmibaby to increase its presence in the region and raise awareness of its ever growing network of low cost flights to Europe from Birmingham.

Supporters of the St. Andrew’s Stadium side will also benefit from the deal with the chance to win flights through a series of exciting match and family day promotions across the season.

Head of commercial at bmibaby, Richard Jackson, said:

“Partnering with Birmingham City provides a great opportunity for bmibaby to reach out to football fans across the Midlands and engage directly with potential new customers.

"This is the first of many relationships we aim to build with businesses across Birmingham over coming months and I’m hopeful we can work together to take both brands to new heights.”

Chris Hughton, Manager of Birmingham City Football Club said:

“It was great to meet Richard at the launch of the club’s partnership with bmibaby, who are an extremely well known name in the airline world and of course are Midlands based like ourselves.

“The club looks forward to a very close working relationship with bmibaby and as airline partners our supporters can look forward to a whole range of exciting offers, competitions and initiatives.”

bmibaby scores with Manchester United fans in Northern Ireland

With excitement building among Manchester United fans as the UEFA Europa League knockout match  against AFC Ajax draws nearer, bmibaby has stepped in to ensure that supporters in Northern Ireland are able to make it to the game on time.

The low cost airline has adjusted its flight schedule from Belfast City Airport to Amsterdam Airport on the afternoon of the big match.  Fans can now fly direct with bmibaby on Thursday 16^th February from Belfast City Airport departing at 13:20 and arriving in Amsterdam Airport at 16:00 ready for the 19:00 kick off.

bmibaby is also offering a special fare of £95.98 return, including taxes, for anyone booking outbound seats on either Wednesday 15^th February (16:15-18:55) or Thursday 16^th February (13:20-16:00) and returning on Friday 17^th February (18:25-19:15).  Flights booked before the end of January will have a free checked-in luggage allowance included.

Julian Carr, managing director, bmibaby, said:

“We know there is a huge Manchester United following in Northern Ireland and this is a critical match, so it’s important to us to be flexible and to facilitate timely and affordable travel from Belfast City Airport to Amsterdam. Fans can book online today at http://www.bmibaby.com/ and I hope they get the match result they’re looking for!”

bmibaby is also on sale with flights from Birmingham and East Midlands Airport to Amsterdam.  The low cost airline offers up to two flights a day from both airports, with convenient timings and low fares.  To book a flight visit http://www.bmibaby.com/   

Midlands property industry gears up with less than six weeks until MIPIM

With less than six weeks until the world famous MIPIM conference in Cannes, seats are selling fast on special services from Birmingham Airport and East Midlands Airport to Nice.

Introduced in response to popular demand, bmibaby is the only airline to offer flights to the conference from East Midlands Airport with a service departing on 6 March and returning on 9 March 2012.

Courtesy of bmibaby, customers travelling on this flight will enjoy a complimentary continental breakfast at East Midlands Airport before they fly.

Customers travelling from Birmingham can take advantage of six extra flights that have been added to the schedule. In total, bmibaby will operate 12 flights between Birmingham and Nice over the course of the event allowing conference-goers to travel at a time that best suits them.

Julian Carr, managing director, bmibaby, commented:

“We are delighted to work with both East Midlands and Birmingham Airport to provide these additional services and make it easier for property professionals to get over to MIPIM. Demand is always high at this time of year and we’re expecting to carry more than 2,000 customers during this busy time.”

Lorraine Baggs, Trade & Investment Manager, Invest in Nottingham, commented:

“It is great to work with East Midlands Airport and bmibaby to enable this flight to happen. This is further proof that the economy in the East Midlands is far from stagnant. We have a very strong team of professionals in Team Nottingham heading out to MIPIM this year and will be promoting the city and regions transport infrastructure as one of our key strengths”

MIPIM is the world’s premier real estate event and runs from 6-9 March 2012 in Cannes. Renowned for being the event in the calendar for the international property industry, the show attracted 18,000 attendees from across the globe in 2011.

bmibaby announces extra flights to Knock for summer 2012

bmibaby is increasing its frequency of flights from Birmingham Airport to Ireland West Airport Knock for summer 2012 with the addition of up to two extra flights per week.

bmibaby currently flies to the ever popular West of Ireland up to five times a week with this increasing to six for the whole summer season. The extra flights will provide an additional capacity of 592 seats per week, and bmibaby expect to carry up to 55,000 customers on the services throughout the summer.

Julian Carr, managing director, bmibaby, said:

“We are delighted to offer even more flights to Knock this summer. It is a popular route and customers can continue to enjoy our great bmibaby service and low fares on their way to the scenic West of Ireland.”

Flights from Birmingham Airport to Ireland West Airport Knock, start from just £14.99 one way including taxes.

bmibaby announces Rainbows as its charity for 2012

bmibaby is adopting Rainbows – the East Midlands hospice for young people and children as its nominated charity for 2012.

bmibaby is now pledging its support to Rainbows after listening to its employees who wanted to see their support reach a local cause. The airline has set a target of £20,000 to hit in the first year.

bmibaby proudly launched its backing for the hospice by naming one of its aircrafts ‘Rainbow Baby’ in honour of the charity.

Kate Golding, Rainbows Corporate Fundraiser was in attendance and said:

"This is a great partnership for Rainbows, we are really happy to get on board with bmibaby. The airline has provided Rainbows with a number of incentives and ways in which they are going to help support the charity and the first is here today with the branding and naming of the aircraft."

Julian Carr, managing director, bmibaby, said:

"bmibaby is honoured to adopt Rainbows as its charity for 2012. Rainbows is an extremely worthy cause and an incredible place where children and young people and their families are cared for and supported. This is the message that we want to get across to our customers and show them the excellent work the hospice does. I am looking forward to supporting the fundraising with a few challenges of my own!"

Rainbows Hospice is a purpose-built children’s facility, which opened in 1994 to meet the needs of children and young people affected by life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. Located in Leicestershire, it is used by youngsters across the whole of the East Midlands as the region’s only children’s hospice.

Trevor and Wendy Thompson from Dundonald in East Belfast got a very pleasant surprise this week when they found out they were the lucky winners of a package holiday courtesy of bmibaby holidays.

The couple, who took advantage of bmibaby’s new package holiday service when they booked a holiday to Portugal in January, were delighted to discover that they had been randomly selected in a prize draw to win back the cost of their holiday.

Commenting on his recent good fortune, Mr Thompson said:

“We are beyond delighted to have won our holiday to Portugal.  It’s fantastic news for people here that bmibaby is making it cheaper and easier to holiday in the UK and Europe.  The fact that bmibaby holidays was able to offer such an extensive range of holiday packages, including flights, accommodation and optional airport transfers, was extremely appealing to us and the reason we booked online with them in the first place.  It really did take the hassle out of booking our holiday.  Needless to say, finding that we had won back the cost of the holiday was the icing on the cake!”

Julian Carr, managing director at bmibaby, said:

“We are well known for our low cost flights and have a loyal following of regular holiday makers who fly frequently with us.  It made perfect sense to extend our offering and give our customers the chance to book their complete holiday package with us.  There are no debit card fees to pay and customers can secure their holidays from as little as £50 deposit per person. Plus they have the security of knowing that bmibaby holidays is fully ATOL protected.

Provided in association with Co-op Holidays, bmibaby holidays gives customers the chance to build their perfect holiday package including convenient bmibaby flights from Belfast City Airport, a range of accommodation options and competitive optional airports transfers.

Simply log on to http://www.bmibabyholidays.com/ to explore what’s available and view the latest offers, a ‘destination of the month’ recommendation and last minute deals.

bmibaby is this month celebrating its 10th birthday.

The airline has achieved considerable success since its first flight took off from East Midlands Airport for Malaga on 20 March 2002 and now operates a successful network of 36 sun, snow and city routes from three UK bases.

After launching with just nine routes in 2002, the airline quickly expanded and now employs 450 people across its Birmingham, East Midlands and Belfast bases.

In the last 12 months alone bmibaby has gone from strength-to-strength. Under the leadership of managing director Julian Carr, the airline has continued to develop its focus on customer service and add new destinations to the route network with 13 new routes being launched from its three bases for summer 2012.

Julian Carr, managing director, bmibaby, said:

“It is great to be marking 10 years of service with a number of the team who have been with us since the start. We’ve seen many highlights over the years, but my personal favourite is when we rolled out our new mission, vision and values for bmibaby last year. The whole team really pulled together to implement the changes we made to focus on our service proposition, which resulted in us being voted Best Low Cost Airline by the readers of Condé Nast Traveller.

“We are on sale with our summer schedule, with new routes from all three of our bases and I look forward to continuing to offer our customers an exceptional in flight service whilst providing low fares.”

bmibaby has continued to develop its route network. New routes from East Midlands Airport to Corfu, Gibraltar, Murcia and Naples and from Birmingham Airport to Barcelona, Rome and Lisbon are already on sale and performing well. New routes from Belfast City Airport to Malaga, Faro, Alicante, Palma, Ibiza and Mahon will be launching over the coming months.

Update 28th March 2012

Spanish General strike

bmibaby has been advised of a general strike in Spain on Thursday 29th March which could potentially cause disruption to flights to and from Spain.

bmibaby currently intends to operate all flights to and from Spain as planned and customers travelling on 29th March should check in as normal.

Due to local transport operators potentially being involved in the industrial action, customers booked to travel from Spain to the UK should give themselves plenty of time to get to the departure airport.

bmibaby would like to advise all customers to continue to monitor this page for further updates.

Giant paella and special pizza celebrate new routes for bmibaby

bmibaby celebrated the launch of its six new summer services to Barcelona, Lisbon, Rome, Gibraltar, Murcia and Naples with a giant paella and special pizza.

Inaugural services to Barcelona, Lisbon and Rome have taken off from Birmingham Airport while services to Gibraltar, Murcia and Naples have commenced from East Midlands Airport.

Bringing a taste of Spain to customers checking in for the inaugural services to Murcia at East Midlands Airport, bmibaby delighted holidaymakers with a selection of delicious tapas and a giant paella specially commissioned to mark the first flight.

Customers on the very first Gibraltar service were joined by three special guests. Nicky Guerrero, the chief executive of the Gibraltar Tourist Board, Peter Canessa, the director of Gibraltar House, and the former Miss World, Kaiane Aldorino, who hails from Gibraltar.

The team marked the departure of the first service with a number of 'lucky seat' giveaways during the flight, surprising customers with free passes to The Rock of Gibraltar, scuba diving sessions and free accommodation in some of Gibraltar’s finest hotels.

bmibaby customers at Birmingham Airport also got a slice of the action as they celebrated the inaugural service to Rome with a specially commissioned bmibaby pizza comprising delicious buffalo mozzarella and meatballs.

Julian Carr, managing director, bmibaby, said:

“We are delighted to expand our network from East Midlands and Birmingham Airport introducing these six new services to Barcelona, Lisbon, Rome, Gibraltar, Murcia and Naples. I’m delighted to say that these first flights were exceptionally busy, with 96 per cent of the seats sold across all the inaugural flights. We are confident these routes will continue to prove popular over the summer season.”

bmibaby flies from East Midlands Airport to Murcia and Naples twice a week and Gibraltar up to three times a week. Fares start from just £55.99 one way to Murcia and Gibraltar and just £60.99 one way to Murcia, all including taxes.

bmibaby flies from Birmingham Airport to Rome and Barcelona up to four times a week and from Birmingham Airport to Lisbon twice a week. Fares start from just £55.99 one way to Rome, £45.99 one way to Barcelona and £50.99 one way to Lisbon, all including taxes.