British Airways franchise British Mediterranean Airways has unveiled its five-year growth plan, part of which sees it becoming officially known as Bmed, writes Richard Pinkham.
Des Hetherington, chief executive of the London Heathrow-based carrier, says that the airline will effectively double its unit capacity in the next five years.
At the moment, it operates three Airbus A320s and three A321s, all of which are leased. Hetherington says that by 2009 the carrier plans to operate a fleet of 10-11 aircraft, all A321s.
This additional capacity, which will receive its first boost in May with the addition of a new A320, will mostly be used to bolster frequencies on its current roster of 15 destinations, the newest of which - the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and Yekaterinburg in Russia - were added this year.
However, the carrier also plans to add three new citiesto its route map, with Kabul, Afghanistan and Sanaa, Yemen, among the candidates under consideration.
Industry observers have noted that Iraq - either Baghdad or Basra - would be a logical addition to the 14 countries to which Bmed flies, as the carrier has developed a profitable niche in serving long, thin routes to petroleum-producing nations in the Middle East and Central Asia, such as Iran and Kazakhstan.
But Hetherington says that BA - which, under the terms of their open-ended franchise contract, has right of first refusal on all new destinations - has indicated it will fly to Iraq itself when conditions improve enough to allow commercial air services to be introduced.
Bmed says it has no intention of changing its franchise with BA, which it has held since 1997 and it forms the nucleus of its business plan.
Source: Flight International
