visit marks first anniversary of burgeoning London Heathrow-Riyadh route
Sir Michael Bishop, chairman of bmi, announced during a visit to Saudi Arabia that lie-flat beds are to be introduced to the business class cabin on all of the airline’s long haul routes.
From next June, bmi’s award-winning ‘the business’ cabin on its entire fleet of Airbus A330 aircraft will feature electronically-adjustable lie-flat beds, with a generous 80 inch seat pitch.
Sir Michael is visiting Riyadh and Jeddah to meet with His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Salman, Secretary General of the Supreme Commission for Tourism, as well as government, tourism and business representatives. He is also guest of honour at a dinner being hosted by the British Ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper Coles.
Sir Michael said: “The route between London Heathrow and Riyadh has achieved significant success and is moving into profitability. Thanks to this, and the tremendous ongoing support we have enjoyed, we were able to start the service to Jeddah earlier this year which is experiencing similar success.
“We are proud and delighted to be the only British carrier serving Saudi Arabia and are confident that our investment in the introduction of lie-flat beds will create further demand and growth on these routes.
“We will also be reintroducing the A330 onto our Riyadh and Jeddah routes from next Spring.”
The introduction of lie-flat beds represents an investment of £2 million for bmi.