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Airlines need to be the ‘master of their own destiny’ to ensure they can continue to operate in a post-Brexit environment, according to Jochen Schnadt, the chief commercial officer for British regional airline bmi. His comments come as Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air has secured a UK air operator certificate to help safeguard flights once Britain leaves the EU.
bmi Regional is planning to spread its wings with an expanding repertoire of routes in niche European destinations. The airline's Jochen Schnadt talks possible future partnerships, aircraft orders and avoiding Brexit chaos.
Expansion of bmi regional's fleet is a case of “when not if”, chief commercial officer Jochen Schnadt has told Routesonline, as the regional carrier seeks to grow its European footprint.
The £3.8 million UK government funding is a significant investment in supporting the Londonderry - London route. Based on bmi regional using a 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145 on the route and its 13 return weekly frequencies that will equate to 1,300 seats a week, 67,600 seats a year or 135,200 seats for the full two-year funding term. With 2,704 one-way flights scheduled to operate during this period that works out as over £1,400 of support per flight, or £28 per seat.
bmi regional believes consumers are now looking for new experiences in more familiar regions and to meet this demand will introduce flights from Birmingham to Graz, Austria; Nuremburg, Germany; and resume a former link to Gothenburg, Sweden.
Irish regional carrier CityJet has secured a two-year wet-lease deal with Brussels Airlines to operate three Sukhoi SSJ100 Superjets for the Belgian flag carrier on routes from Brussels Airport from April 2017. The deal follows a formal tender from Brussels Airlines to support its network needs as it completes the retirement of its Avro RJ100 fleet from commercial operation.
Speaking in a session on regional carrier trends in Europe, bmi regional's chief commercial officer, Jochen Schnadt, said that bmi regional is seeing the potential to grow capacity in some of its existing markets and opportunities for larger equipment for new route development.
The new route has not only gained the attention of the travelling public, but also the wider industry with network planners across Europe and even further afield voting this new service ahead of other routes such as Hainan Airlines’ Beijing – Manchester, Wizz Air’s Kutaisi – Berlin, Norwegian’s Oslo – Las Vegas and British Airways’ London – Tehran for a Routes Case presentation at Routes Europe in an exclusive Routesonline poll.
Have you wondered what enticed an airline to a certain destination? What the data says about demand on the city pair and connecting markets? What external factors may have influenced the airline in selecting a specific city pair? How this business case differs from others? Our new ‘Route Case’ offering will seek to provide the answers all within a single 20 minute meeting slot at our events.
bmi regional will offer a twice daily weekday operation and single daily weekend offer between Southampton and Munich from April 15, 2016 using Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet equipment. The schedule will support both point-to-point business travellers, leisure demand and will provide connection options via Munich.
The new flying for Brussels Airlines is being made possible by the positioning of one of its Embraer ERJ-145s into the Belgian capital. This aircraft will enable it to offer an improved flight schedule on its existing East Midlands – Brussels route and enable UK business travellers to spend a full day in Brussels and return in the evening, without having to overnight in the city.
The airline will bring the return of flights between Munich and Brno, Czech Republic with a new six times weekly service from November 16, 2015, adding to its existing routes to Liege (Belgium), Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Bern (Switzerland) and Bristol (United Kingdom).
A senior airline and aviation executive and regular attendee of Routes Europe and World Routes, Schnadt brings 20 plus years of extensive experience to the airline predominantly from senior roles within the commercial, strategic, planning and operational areas of the aviation industry.
These new flights will strengthen links to key markets in France and Germany for business and leisure passengers in the South West of England, further enhance the airline’s growing base at Bristol Airport and at the same time providing passengers with a convenient local alternative to the London airports.
bmi regional will introduce the three new routes from the start of the summer 2015 schedule in late March and will offer up to two rotations per day to Liege and up to three a day to Berne and Rotterdam. The Liege route will be served by an Embraer ERJ-135, the Rotterdam link with a larger ERJ-145 and the Berne service by a mix of the two aircraft types.
