British Mediterranean Airways
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Template:British Airways British Mediterranean Airways, trading as BMED, is an airline based at London Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom. It operates scheduled services as a British Airways franchise operator to to 16 destinations in 15 countries throughout Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
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History
British Mediterranean Airways was established in 1994 by a group of private investors and began operations on 28 October that year with an Airbus A320, flying from London Heathrow to Beirut, the Lebanese capital. Damascus in Syria and Amman in Jordan were added to the network the following year, and the airline began flying a fortnightly charter service to Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, for gold miners. The effective utilisation of aircraft was recognised at the end of the year when the airline was presented with an Achievement Award from Airbus Industrie for the highest average flight duration of 3.7 hours.
In March 1997 the airline reached an agreement with British Airways, which would see the national carrier withdraw its own competing services to Beirut, Damascus and Amman, leaving British Mediterranean as the sole operator on a British Airways franchise basis. Under this agreement the airline trades as British Airways, with all flights operated under BA flight codes (the range BA6500-6669 are allocated to BMED flights). All BMED aircraft are presented in full British Airways livery, appointed with the same interior and class product as the BA main fleet, and staff wear the BA uniform. BMED flights are booked through British Airways and the airline participates in BA's Executive Club and BA Miles programme. BMED is an affiliate member of oneworld.
With the franchise agreement, British Mediterranean's operations moved from Heathrow's Terminal 3 to Terminal 4, allowing greater integration with the BA network. The airline has greatly benefited from the franchise arrangement, taking over unprofitable BA mainline services better suited to BMED's lower cost base, to destinations such as Baku, Tehran, Addis Ababa and Almaty. British Mediterranean has also launched a number of routes on its own, backed by the global sales and marketing of British Airways, as well as feeder traffic to and from Heathrow.
British Mediterranean Airways rebranded as BMED in November 2004, citing the shorter name and revamped logo will help stregthen the airline's image and be more recognisable for staff and customers alike.
BMED carried 277,000 passengers on its 6 aircraft, to 16 destinations in 15 countries during 2004.
Services
BMED operates services to the following international destinations: (at June 2005): Addis Ababa, Aleppo, Alexandria, Almaty, Amman, Baku, Beirut, Bishkek, Damascus, Ekaterinburg, Khartoum, London (Heathrow), Tashkent, Tbilisi, Tehran and Yerevan.
Fleet
Bmed_logo.jpg
The BMED fleet consists of the following aircraft (at June 2005):
- 3 Airbus A320-200 (further 1 on order)
- 3 Airbus A321-200
External links
- British Mediterranean Airways (http://www.flybmed.com/)
- BMED Fleet Detail (http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/British_Mediterranean_Airways?show=all)
- BMED Passenger Opinions (http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/brit_med.htm)Template:Airlines of the United Kingdom