bmi regional (BM, Aberdeen Dyce) could drop its "Regional" suffix after its new owner secured full ownership of the bmi brand, including various web domains, earlier this month. Since the sale of bmi british midland (BD, East Midlands) to the International Airlines Group (IAG) and its subsequent merger with British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) last year, bmi regional has been busy establishing itself as an independent airline which has involved securing full GDS participation and setting up a new corporate headquarters at East Midlands. The airline is also launching new branding and marketing campaigns with greater focus on leisure traffic, though its traditional business niche will still play a strong role as seen by the launch of its most recent route from Bristol Int'l to Frankfurt Int'l. As part of plans to attract new clients the airline plans to launch its own new frequent flyer program, as it no longer holds the rights to predecessor bmi british midland's Diamond Club frequent flyer brand.

Aer Lingus (EI, Dublin Int'l) is widely expected to finally emerge as the wet-lease operator for Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow)' planned new short-haul routes from London Heathrow to Aberdeen Dyce, Edinburgh, Manchester Int'l and Nice to be launched on March 31 with slots Virgin has been allocated as a result of the bmi british midland (BD, East Midlands) acquisition by rival British Airways (BA, London Heathrow). Virgin Atlantic had previously announced that it would wet-lease A320 family aircraft from another operator, also rumoured to be Avion Express (X9, Vilnius), for its new short-haul operations.

Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow) has been allocated all 14 slot pairs at London's Heathrow airport British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) had been forced to give up as part of the conditions for European Commission approval of the bmi british midland (BD, East Midlands) acquisition. Virgin Atlantic had previously already announced plans to wet-lease A319-100s to launch a new domestic route to Manchester Int'l from March 2013 and it now plans to use the slots to also offer domestic flights to both Aberdeen Dyce and Edinburgh. Virgin is expecting to hold discussions with the UK civil aviation authority and the European Commission on how to use the two slot pairs assigned that were previously used by bmi for the route to Moscow Domodedovo given traffic rights for the route were instead assigned to low-cost carrier easyJet (U2, London Luton). According to a news report by the Guardian, it is considering Nice as a potential other short-haul destination from Heathrow.

easyJet (U2, London Luton) has been assigned as the second UK carrier besides British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) to receive traffic rights for the London-Moscow route. The traffic rights were available because of the acquisition of bmi british midland (BD, East Midlands) by British Airways and both Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow) and easyJet had submitted applications. The UK civil aviation administration has selected easyJet arguing it would offer more consumer choice than Virgin Atlantic which would have provided a similar service to British Airways. easyJet needs to enter into a codeshare agreement with a Russian carrier to be able to serve the route and is expected to put an agreement with Transaero Airlines (UN, Moscow Domodedovo) in place allowing it to launch twice daily service from London Gatwick to Moscow Domodedovo in spring 2013. easyJet has also been assigned slots to be able to challenge Alitalia (AZ, Rome Fiumicino) on the route between Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate from early 2013. It plans to offer five daily A319-100 round-trips on the route. easyJet currently also offers five daily flights from Rome Fiumicino to Milan Malpensa and it is not clear if all or some of these flights will be cancelled instead.

bmibaby (WW, East Midlands) is operating its last flights on September 9 as previously announced by new parent British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) marking the end of the ten year history of the low-cost carrier initially set-up by bmi british midland (BD, East Midlands). Recently, it had still operated ten B737-300s and two B737-500s from bases at Birmingham Int'l and East Midlands.