Bmi's profits rocket by 200%

Airline group bmi has announced its pre-tax profits have soared nearly 200 per cent to £29.7 million last year.

This compared with a pre-tax figure of £10 million in 2005 for the group formerly known as British Midland Airways, and comes despite an estimated £10 million in lost revenues caused by the knock-on effect of the increased airport security at Heathrow last summer.

"This is an excellent set of results," said Sir Michael Bishop, the chairman of bmi group which also includes low-fare operator bmibaby.

Bmi is the second-largest airline at Heathrow after British Airways and stands to benefit from the opening up of transatlantic routes following this year's US-EU "open skies" agreement.

The bmi group turnover rose 4.2 per cent last year to £905.4 million, operating profit was up 85.5 per cent to £10.2 million and the number of passengers carried remained the same as in 2005 at 10.5 million.

Sir Michael said: "The 85.5 per cent increase in operating profit was achieved in the face of extremely difficult operating conditions and would have been better but for very challenging issues at Heathrow, where a major security disruption in August and fog in December cost bmi some £10 million of lost revenues.

He added: "On February 2 2007 we acquired control of the Heathrow-based airline British Mediterranean (BMED), which will enable us to accelerate our expansion strategy into medium haul markets.

"In addition, the transatlantic open skies decision will create genuine competition and enable bmi to provide services to the US from our operational hub at Heathrow from March 2008."

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