British midland overhaul fare structure
Bmi british midland is overhauling its fare structure to compete head on with its low-cost rivals.
The privately-owned airline says it's scrapping its complicated return fare structures.
Instead it will have one-way fares for domestic and European flights.
It says this allows passengers to choose from the lowest available fare on each leg of their journey, without being inhibited by minimum stay requirements such as the restrictive "Saturday night stopover".
The move comes just three months after bmi launched its own low-cost airline, bmibaby.
Austin Reid, chief executive officer at bmi british midland, says: "We began an exhaustive review of our business model last year and this major strategic change is an aspect of it.
"What we had found was that one of the main areas where our "no frills" competitors had an advantage over us was our fare restrictions, specifically on our very low fares which nearly always had to be booked as part of a return journey.
"What we have done, is wipe the slate clean and start again with this complete rethink of our ticket prices."
