Bmi deal under fire from rival airline

Friday 26th January 2007, 12:00AM GMT.

AIRLINE Flybe says that the deal to allow Bmi to fly from Jersey to Heathrow is a ‘slot-sitting’ exercise that is ‘potentially playing the lottery’ with taxpayers’ money.

And Flybe’s chief commercial officer, Mike Rutter, says that Jersey travellers could be left’in the lurch after Bmi ‘inevitably dispose’ of the valuable take-off and landing slots at the UK’s busiest airport. Pairs of slots at Heathrow can change hands at as much as £25 million and many industry analysts believe that Bmi had to find an acceptable use for a number of slots they are currently using on the Heathrow to Paris link that the airline will stop flying on 25 March. The new Jersey to Heathrow service will start the following day.

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