The airline flew to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America and Central Asia from its main hub at London Heathrow Airport, where at its peak it held about 13% of all takeoff and landing slots and operated over 2,000 flights a week.

[3] BMI Regional was sold to Sector Aviation Holdings in May 2012 and operated under the "flybmi" brand until it went into administration on 16 February 2019, whereas Bmibaby closed down in September 2012.

British Midland Airways Limited held a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Type A Operating Licence, permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

His wife remained the controlling shareholder of the business and asked E. W. Phillips, who had been involved in running the flying school with Captain Harben, to become the new managing director.

The new parent company also incorporated Wolverhampton Aviation, based at Pendeford, which offered ad hoc charter and freight flights with de Havilland Dragon Rapides, as well as aircraft maintenance and brokerage.

[9] Following his appointment as managing director in 1972, Bishop withdrew the One-Elevens from service, two of which were swapped for three Handley Page Dart Heralds while the third was subsequently leased to Court Line.

This resulted in BMA concentrating on regional, short-haul scheduled services and ad hoc charters using turboprops such as the Herald and Viscount as these were more economical than contemporary jets on short, thin routes.

The success of the airline's wet lease operation resulted in an increase in the number of Boeing 707s allocated to this activity, including the addition of several later model 707-320B and -320C aircraft from 1976.

With the help of a Californian entrepreneur, Robert F. Beauchamp, Bishop raised £2.5 million to lead the management buy-out, and was appointed chairman as a result, afterwards stating "I had to borrow the money from an American citizen.

Within a year or two these were replaced by the DC9 15, and following the extension of the runway at Leeds Bradford, the DC9 32 became the standard equipment on the route supplemented by the 15 series and at weekends the occasional Viscount, Fokker F27 or BAE ATP turbo prop.

In 1986 however, British Midland leased a BAC1-11 400 (G-WLAD) from Airways International Cymru, and this aircraft was mainly used on the Heathrow route in lieu of the usual DC9s which returned in 1987.

In the following years, British Midland increased its operations from Leeds Bradford, and introduced other routes including Glasgow, Paris CDG and Brussels.

The decision to overturn the CAA's ruling enabled the airline to commence its first domestic trunk route from the UK's premier airport on 25 October 1982, when it launched six daily return flights between Heathrow and Glasgow operated with DC-9s.

At this time, BMA was branded simply British Midland, and a new logo featuring a stylised red BM crowned with a white diamond shape appeared on aircraft tailfins.

[18] The conclusion of the first fully liberalised bilateral air transport agreement in Europe between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in 1985, as well as a legal technicality exempting the airline from the "London [Air] Traffic Distribution Rules" (a government policy that sought to compel all airlines that were planning to operate an international scheduled service to or from Heathrow for the first time to use Gatwick instead) as a result of having operated a Heathrow–Strasbourg scheduled service prior to this policy coming into effect on 1 April 1978, enabled BMA to compete directly with BA between Heathrow and Amsterdam from 29 June 1986.

Aircraft received a new livery of royal blue, white and a fading Union flag on the tail, along with the new lower case BMI logotype.

Its first-time inclusion in BMI's 2007 annual report also resulted in a huge boost to the airline's net asset value, which stood at only £12 million the year before.

It can therefore be argued that the EC's decision to legalise this practice made BMI an attractive takeover target for other Heathrow-based airlines and helped it avert bankruptcy.

[37] In November 2009, following the complete takeover of BMI by Lufthansa, the airline announced a restructuring of its mainline and regional operations in an effort to suspend loss-making routes and adjust capacity.

[39] On 12 January 2010, BMI announced that the number of daily flights between Dublin and London Heathrow would be reduced from 28 March from six to four due to the economic climate, which depressed consumer demand.

[40] In April 2010, the airline announced it would begin using the British Midland International name, whilst retaining the BMI logo and continuing to be known by those initials in the domestic market.

[25] Following increasing heavy losses that exceeded £100 million per year by 2012, BMI decided to stop offering business class on domestic flights and introduce a number of new, longer range international scheduled services from Heathrow to ensure the most profitable use of its highly prized (and sought-after) slots at the severely capacity-constrained airport.

The decision to exit the Heathrow–Glasgow market after almost 30 years' continuous operation was blamed on a big rise in the fees BAA levied on domestic passengers at Heathrow, which had resulted in unsustainable losses of £1 million per month.

[42] In September 2023, the company re-appeared on social media, on platforms Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) with the statement: "We're preparing to usher in a new era for the iconic bmi British Midland brand.

[43][44] As the company is using a new web domain and new social media handles, the future identity of British Midland is unknown, and whether or not the "jet" phrase will be incorporated.

Virgin argued that the merger would have brought together two airlines with combined ticket sales of more than £2 billion, forming a powerful force in the aviation industry.

A merger would have strengthened Virgin Atlantic's base at Heathrow, where BMI had hundreds of highly valued take-off and landing slots, to increase the competition with British Airways.

In late 2006, the airline again dismissed renewed speculation that Virgin Atlantic was preparing to make a bid to acquire full control of BMI, despite Sir Richard Branson repeating in a radio interview that such a merger would be a logical business move.

[56] Virgin Atlantic confirmed on 12 December 2011 that it had also made an offer for BMI and signed an agreement in late November to allow them to conduct due diligence on the airline.

At its peak prior to the commencement of licensing transfers, the fleet consisted of the following aircraft registered with the Civil Aviation Authority:[71] BMI formerly operated the following:[72] On flights from London Heathrow within the UK and to Ireland, economy class passengers had a selection of food items available for purchase; flexible economy class passengers were offered complimentary snacks and drinks.