Yesterday’s announcement by bmibaby to expand operations at Belfast City Airport has come at a cost to Manchester and Cardiff Airports.

In a statement, the airline said that ‘ In the current economic climate it is essential for bmibaby to focus on airports where the airline already has a strong market presence and where there are strong growth opportunities for the bmibaby business. Therefore bmibaby has optimised their current flying programme and as a result of this bmibaby will cease operations from Cardiff Airport and from Manchester Airport at the end of the summer 2011 flying programme.’

However, bmi will continue to operate from Manchester – it recently announced a new service to Frankfurt, operated on behalf of Lufthansa, and launched a new service from Manchester to Basel in Switzerland. bmi regional operates frequent services from Manchester Airport to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Lyon.