List of British Airlines
The United Kingdom has more than 40 international and domestic airline carriers serving England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and bmi are the primary international British airline carriers. EasyJet and Flybe are the more popular domestic and regional low-fare airlines that serve most of Europe with holiday packages.
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bmi
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The Lufthansa-owned British Midland Airlines Ltd., commonly known as bmi, operates out of London Heathrow Airport with its headquarters based in Castle Donington, England. It operates more than 2,000 flights a week and possesses one of every 10 landing and take-off slots at Heathrow. It operates throughout Europe. It also established routes to the Middle East, including Riyadh and Saudi Arabia, after British Airways closed its routes there in 2005, according to flybmi.com.
British Airways
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British Airways plc is a London-based airlines and product of England's nationalization of the airline industry in 1974 when the British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways merged. British Airways is the United Kingdom's largest carrier with nearly 250 Airbus A380s and Boeing 747s in its fleet. It has global routes, according to fundinguniverse.com.
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Monarch Airlines
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The Luton, England-based Monarch Airlines has been operating out of the Gatwick Airport since 1968. It's a low-fare charter airline serves Europe, Africa, India, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the United States. Destinations in the UK are Birmingham, Blackpool and Manchester. It also has a route to Dublin, Ireland. Most of its 31-fleet aircraft are Airbuses and Boeings, according to monarch.co.uk.
EasyJet
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EasyJet is perhaps the most popular low-fare airlines now in existence in the United Kingdom. Established in 1995, it carried more than 44 million passengers alone in 2008 and remains in fierce competition with Ryanair for low-cost supremacy over the United Kingdom and Ireland. EasyJet, which boasts nearly 200 aircraft in its fleet, owes its success to an aggressive marketing campaign geared to British weekend holidaymakers taking short-distance tourist-destination flights, according to easyjet.com.
Flybe
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Flybe is another low-fare carrier. It operates more than 70 aircraft to 55 European cities and operates on the same principle as EasyJet by offering low-cost holiday packages to tourist destinations. It solidified its position in the regional market when it acquired British Airways regional routes in 2007, according to bized.co.uk.
Virgin Atlantic
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The upstart United Kingdom carrier Virgin Atlantic has been locked in a bitter battle against British Airways for supremacy of the global market. Owned by the colorful Sir Richard Branson, Virgin flies about 40 aircraft to 30 destinations. While Virgin's global reach is not as far as British Airways, Virgin carried 5.77 million passengers in 2008, according to virgin-atlantic.com.
Other Carriers
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Other British carriers that are primarily regional service providers with limited fleets include Air Southwest, Blue Islands, Eastern Airways, MyTravel Airways and Thomsonfly. Other regional airlines, such as First Choice Airways and EuroManx, have ceased operations due to tough competition in the low-fare battles, according to travellerspoint.com.
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- Photo Credit Jerome/flickr.com; bribriTO/flickr.com; WexDub/flickr.com
