The water cannon salute greeted the BMI (British Midland International) flight BD928 that was arriving from Baku to London Heathrow to mark the ending of this airline that lasted for close to 75 years. The airline started as Air Schools Limited in 1938. You can read more about the airlines history here.
The last few years have been very turbulent times for BMI. Lufthansa owned the airline for few years and sunk hundreds of millions euros into it and finally gave up earlier this year. The airline was sold to the International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent of British Airways and Iberia.
The IAG bought the airline mainly for the slots at the London Heathrow airport.
Conclusion
It was a sad day for all of us that had had vested interest in BMI over the years. I have been the member of BMI’s Diamond Club for years and credited all my business/first class Star Alliance carriers flights to this program.
Redeeming the miles wasn’t always easy as you had to deal with BMI’s outsourced call center in somewhere India. Dealing with the BMI’s call center probably has shortened my life expectancy by couple of years.
