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Cardiff named as second bmibaby base
No-frills airline bmibaby has confirmed that Cardiff International Airport is to be its second UK base, joining existing location East Midlands Airport.
Cardiff beat off stiff competition to win the contract – many observers had tipped Manchester Airport as bmibaby’s most likely choice for its next location. Cardiff is owned by TBI which has considerable experience in the low cost sector – it also operates Luton airport – one of easyJet’s bases. bmibaby is set to become the airport’s biggest customer – the airline said it expects to carry one million passengers a year through the new base.
The airport’s managing director Jon Horne said: “I am delighted that bmibaby has selected Cardiff International Airport to be the next base for the airline. There was clearly strong competition from other UK airports to win the award of this base, as the commercial potential is significant.
He added: “Cardiff’s absence of operating restrictions, its capacity to accommodate the potential one million plus passengers this generates and access to a growing and economically developing market, were all key factors in the case put to the airline.”
Details of the routes the carrier will operate from the airport will be announced later this month, but bmibaby said that “at least” two Boeing 737 aircraft would be based at Cardiff.
bmibaby officially started operations on March 20, with the start of its service to Malaga. It currently serves nine destinations from its existing East Midlands Airport base: Barcelona, Dublin, Faro, Ibiza, Malaga, Murcia, Nice, Palma and Prague. Six new routes will be added from the start of the winter timetable.
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