Bmi adds lie-flat beds; delays launch of Heathrow-U.S. flights

British carrier bmi said it will add lie-flat beds to business class starting later this month on routes between Manchester and its U.S. destinations of Chicago and Las Vegas. At the same time, bmi will introduce “a much-enhanced premium economy product” on its U.S. routes, a spokesman said, “providing travelers with a genuine business class seat in a premium economy cabin, with a generous 49-inch seat pitch.” However, bmi also will delay its planned introduction of new routes between London Heathrow and the U.S. until 2009 at the earliest, according to press reports in London. Bmi chairman Sir Michael Bishop told the Financial Times that the company is concerned about ongoing connection problems for passengers at Heathrow, which he said are likely to continue next year even after LHR’s new Terminal 5 opens. Instead, the airline will reportedly begin code-sharing across the Atlantic in 2008 with United and US Airways. Meanwhile, bmi has decided to give top priority to launching other new international routes out of Heathrow – specifically, routes that it acquired with its recent takeover of BMed, formerly British Mediterranean Airways. At the end of October, bmi will start flying from Heathrow to 17 new destinations in Africa, the Mideast and Central Asia, including places like Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Dakar, Damascus, Teheran, Tbilisi and Khartoum.