Virgin Atlantic and bmi have agreed to expand their codeshare deal on the domestic flights of bmi to Amman, Tel Aviv, Beirut, and Tehran effective immediately. Both of the carriers already hold a codeshare agreement on the services to and from Brussels, Venice, Amsterdam, Palma, Hanover, and Dublin from the London Heathrow Airport, which link to the long-haul flights of Virgin Atlantic from the airport. The long-haul flights include those from Boston, Newark, Los Angeles, and the JFK Airport in New York, which are all North American cities.

Martyn Bridger, the Commercial Director for bmi, said that they are happy about extending their codeshare deal with Virgin Atlantic, which will provide their passengers with more access to their strong domestic network, as well as the growing variety of destinations across the Middle East.

Edmond Rose, the Director of Commercial and Revenue Planning for Virgin Atlantic, said that the codeshare extension will give customers more choice on journeys from the airport in Heathrow, which are provided by the two carriers. They are happy as well to work closer with bmi in providing their customers access to their excellent network of Middle Eastern and domestic services, he added.

The majority owner of bmi exercised the option to sell his airline shares to Lufthansa in October, which consisted of nearly 30%. This deal was anticipated to be completed this week; however, sources in the industry believe that the agreement may take another 2 or 3 months before completion. After news of the agreement was revealed, Virgin Atlantic made it no secret that they wanted closer ties with bmi.

Get more information about these carriers at: www.virgin-atlantic.com -or- www.flybmi.com