International carrier pulling out of McCarran

By Richard N. Velotta

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008 | 4:23 p.m.

McCarran International Airport is losing another of its international air carriers.

BMI, a British carrier that inaugurated a route between Manchester and Las Vegas on Halloween in 2004, will discontinue the route in April. The airline, which flies the Las Vegas route three times a week, also is discontinuing service to Chicago.

“The decision to withdraw long-haul services from Manchester was a very tough one, since we have operated (some of) these routes since 2001,” the airline said on its Web site. “However, sadly, the routes have never performed to the revenue levels we hoped to achieve, which combined with 2008 fuel price increases means we still see little prospect of improvement.”

BMI was the 12th busiest international carrier at McCarran in 2007 serving more than 55,000 passengers that year.

A sales representative for the company said while the airline is discontinuing the Las Vegas route as of April 26, it’s possible the route could return after Germany’s Lufthansa completes its acquisition of BMI early next year.

Sales representative Marc Newell said traffic from Las Vegas to Great Britain never materialized to the level BMI was expecting.

BMI is the second-largest airline at London’s Heathrow International Airport. When the company started its Las Vegas service it had more than 2,000 daily flights per week to 37 destinations in 12 countries.

BMI is one of three carriers with nonstop flights between Las Vegas and Europe.

Virgin Atlantic Airways, operated by flamboyant chief executive Richard Branson, flies between London’s Gatwick International Airport and Las Vegas, and Germany’s Condor Airlines has scheduled charter service between Frankfurt and McCarran.