Flybmi

The airline was established in September 1987 as Business Air Ltd. It was the result of the merger between Business Air Centre and Euroair Scotland-based operations. It started irregular flights in August 1987 and schedules on 7 April 1988 with Saab 340. In 1996 Business Air was purchased by British Midland's parent Airlines of Britain and the operational integration happened two years later. The airline adopted the brand British Midland Commuter in December 1998. It operated feeder services for British Midland into Manchester Airport with a fleet of Saab 340 turboprops.

Following the collapse of Debonair in 1999, the air carrier was awarded the contract to operate five BAe 146 aircraft on a wet lease basis for Lufthansa CityLine.

On 21 May 2001, parent company British Midland renamed the subsidiary British Midland Regional Ltd. with the brand bmi regional. As a subsidiary of BMI, the regional company was owned by Michael Bishop (50%), Lufthansa (30%) and Scandinavian Airlines (20%). Lufthansa purchased Michael Bishop's and SAS' stakes in October 2009, taking full ownership of the airline group. A restructuring of the group was announced the following month, which also affected regional's operations. A suspension of loss-making routes and capacity adjustments within the group resulted in the airline having a surplus of three Embraer aircraft in 2010, and the company began consultations with staff over possible job losses. The excess aircraft were leased to other carriers.

The airline was acquired by Sector Aviation Holdings, a company predominantly owned and funded by Stephen and Peter Bond, whose family sold helicopter operator Bond Aviation Group in 2010. Sector Aviation Holdings also included the founders of Business Air, Ian Woodley and Graeme Ross. The sale was announced on 1 June 2012.

In 2014 bmi regional was named the most punctual scheduled airline in the UK for the ninth consecutive year. Based on Civil Aviation Authority statistics, the airline achieved an on-time performance of over 92% in 2013.

On 5 July 2018, bmi regional rebranded to flybmi.

On the evening of 16 February 2019, flybmi announced it was to go into administration and would cease operations immediately. All flights were cancelled. In the following days, Loganair (also owned by AIL), announced that it was to take over several of Flybmi's routes from Aberdeen and Newcastle. Ryanair offered rescue fares for stranded customers on some routes and also sought to recruit former flybmi personnel.

Destinations

As a subsidiary of British Midland International, the airline operated regional services for its parent. After becoming independent of BMI, the airline completed an entire network review which resulted in numerous route and base closures along with the introduction of a number of new routes during 2012 and 2013.

Flybmi operated scheduled services to 23 scheduled destinations throughout continental Europe including Scandinavia and also United Kingdom. Commencing 30 March 2014, the start of the IATA Northern Summer Season 2014, the airline operated a scheduled service on behalf of Brussels Airlines between Brussels and Bristol. Previously, Flybmi also operated a scheduled service on behalf of Brussels Airlines between Brussels and Newcastle.

At the time of closure, Flybmi had codeshare agreements in place with other airlines. Flybmi operated codeshares with Lufthansa on its routes from Bristol to Frankfurt and on all of its routes to/from Munich. It also operated a codeshare with Brussels Airlines from both East Midlands Airport and Newcastle to Brussels.

Flybmi also operated regular holiday charter flights over the summer months. These destinations included Bastia on the island of Corsica on behalf of specialist tour operator Corsican Places, from Bristol, and Verona from Bristol on behalf of another specialist tour operator, Inghams. During 2011 Regional aircraft operated, on behalf of BMI, direct flights between Heathrow Airport and Beja in the Alentejo region of Portugal for Sunvil Discovery.