Oblivious to last week’s leak of its rebranding plans [WAMN: 29-Jan-01], Britain's second largest airline, British Midland, yesterday removed the wraps from its corporate rebranding.

Now known as British Midland International, the carrier has succumbed to the dreaded lower case virus that has swept the marketing world. Its new Airbus A330 fleet is liveried in white and royal blue with a light blue ‘bmi’ logo above ‘british midland’ in white. The wings and engines are adorned with splashes of red.

Lower case, it seems, will have greater appeal to younger travellers – a market segment that is deserting the more traditional airlines in droves as it flocks to low-cost carriers like EasyJet, Go and Buzz.

bmi will also introduce a new class of travel on its forthcoming transatlantic flights, due to take-off from Manchester in April. Alongside old fashioned "business" and "economy" travel, the airline will offer a "new economy" class – although it omitted to explain what this actually means.

News source: BBC Online Business News (UK)