The airline is dropping its Heathrow-Leeds Bradford and Heathrow-Durham Tees Valley, which amount to seven daily services.
The changes will be effective from 28 March and follow an earlier decision by bmi to axe its Heathrow-Jersey route.
bmi managing director Peter Spencer blamed the decision on ‘a combination of factors’.
He said: ‘There has been a small decline in the overall air market and, while we have been able to address this to a degree with the introduction of smaller capacity aircraft and fewer flights, unless BAA, which owns and runs Heathrow, reverses its policy and pricing, we see little prospect of these routes ever being able to achieve an acceptable level of profitability.’
He added: ‘Due in the main to BAA’s inflation-busting increases and changes to its pricing structures that place a considerable disadvantage on short-haul flights, travellers in the north of England are losing their important links to Heathrow.
‘Instead of Heathrow they will now have to rely on European airports such as Amsterdam, Brussels and Frankfurt to connect to worldwide destinations.’
Both regional airports expressed disappointment at the decision.
Leeds Bradford chief executive John Parkin said: ‘We are well aware of the importance to our region of regular air links to London and we expect to be in a position to announce new services to the capital shortly.’
He said plans to expand other bmi regional services from Leeds Bradford were ‘well advanced and continuing’.
Hugh Lang, group airports director at Peel Airports, which owns Durham Tees Valley, said: ‘We understand the huge pressures bmi is facing… but we are anxious to maintain a dialogue with them on possibilities in the future.’
In addition, bmi is cutting capacity on some European services.
Its Heathrow-Dublin service will be reduced from seven a day to six; its Heathrow-Amsterdam service will be reduced from seven a day to four and smaller aircraft will be used on its Heathrow-Aberdeen and Heathrow-Brussels routes, enabling the airline to cut capacity.
See also:
Flybe reiterates support for Jersey (19/01/09)