Ink Publishing, Europe’s biggest publisher of inflight magazines, has landed a major UK airline after being chosen to produce voyager for multi award-winning airline bmi.

The announcement comes just 3 weeks after Ink announced it had won the contract to publish Yeahbaby!, the magazine of bmibaby, bmi’s low cost subsidiary.

The contract with bmi marks a growing presence into the mainline airline market for Ink, and further consolidates its dominance of the UK inflight magazine market. Ink also publishes more inflight magazines than any other company in the world.

Among the 16 titles Ink publishes for 15 carriers worldwide, clients in the UK include BMED (the British Airways franchise airline), bmibaby, easyJet, Jet2.com and MyTravel.

bmi is the UK’s second largest airline at London Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports. bmi is not only Heathrow's most punctual British airline (source AEA intra-European punctuality statistics)—it also has a better punctuality record than any of its direct competitors.

Nigel Turner, Chief Executive Officer of bmi, said: “Our passengers have come to expect a quality publication onboard our aircraft and we are delighted to be working with Ink Publishing on this project. It is clear they have the experience, expertise and infrastructure to meet our requirements.”

Simon Leslie, Group Publishing Director of Ink Publishing, said: “Our London team is hugely excited about adding one of the most famous and familiar brands in the UK to our portfolio. It is evidence of the quality of our work and professionalism that bmi have decided to work with Ink.

“Our magazines reach millions of people every day, and deliver our advertisers affluent, cosmopolitan audiences in ever greater numbers across the UK and Europe. Our partnership with bmi enables us to target the upmarket passengers bmi flies out of Heathrow, and extends our publishing reach further into the United States, Caribbean, India and the Middle East.”

Mr Leslie said Ink was continuing to recruit professional sales staff at every level in anticipation of continued and future growth.

The frequency of the new voyager magazine will be increased from 10 to 12 times per year, and each issue will be packed with entertaining and informative news and features covering the best of British as well as bmi destinations in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, Spain, USA, Caribbean, India and Saudi Arabia.

With an emphasis on travel and lifestyle, the magazine will include topical features covering local culture, celebrities, handpicked hotels, technology, shopping and media reviews to appeal to bmi’s seven million business and leisure travellers.

bmi operates 1,700 flights a week with its fleet of 42 jet aircraft and holds 12 per cent of the take-off and landing slots at London’s Heathrow Airport.

The airline has won more than 50 industry awards since 1990 including 14 times consecutive winner of Best UK Domestic Airline (Travel Weekly), Best Short Haul Business Airline (Business Travel World), Best Domestic Airline (Conde Nast) and Best European Airline (Irish Travel Trade News).

# ENDS #

Editor's notes:

About Ink Publishing
Ink Publishing is a fast-growing international publishing company which produces more inflight magazines and more airline website destination pages than any other publisher in the world. Ink’s award winning titles include AirTran Airways’ Go, Bangkok Airways’ Fah Thai, BMED’s Impressions, bmi voyager, bmibaby Yeahbaby!, easyJet’s Inflight, Jet2.com’s JetAway, MyTravel’s Recline, Siem Reap International Airways’ Sarika, SN Brussels’ Spirit of SN, Tiger Airways’ Tiger Tales, Virgin Express’ RedHot, VLM Airlines’ Velocity, and Wizz Air’s wizzit.

Ink also publishes Bradmans Business Travel Guides to Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America. Ink is the publisher of CNBC European Business magazine and CNN’s bi-monthly travel magazine, CNN Traveller Europe and CNN Traveller Asia Pacific. Ink’s online content clients include The Diamond Trading Company, eBookers, Fiat, Orange, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Vodafone.

The company has operations in the UK, US and Singapore, with its headquarters in London. For more information see www.ink-publishing.com

About bmi
bmi is the second largest airline operating out of London Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest airports. Across its full mainline and regional network, bmi operates flights to: Aberdeen; Alicante; Amsterdam; Antigua; Barbados; Belfast City; Brussels; Chicago; Copenhagen; Cork; Dublin; Durham Tees Valley; Edinburgh; Esbjerg; Glasgow; Groningen; Hanover; Inverness; Jeddah (from Spring 2006); Las Vegas; Leeds Bradford; London Heathrow; Lyon; Manchester; Mumbai; Naples; Nice; Norwich; Nottingham East Midlands; Palma de Mallorca; Paris Charles de Gaulle; Riyadh; Stornoway; Toulouse and Venice. For more information visit www.flybmi.com

Media contacts

Julian Reader, MPS International
Tel: +44 20 7348 6033
Mobile:+44 7770 917716
Email: jreader@mpsipr.com

bmi corporate communications
Tel: +44 (0)1332 854687
E-mail: corporate.communications@flybmi.com

Advertising Enquiries
Tel: +44 20 7613-8769
Email: stefan.bartsch@ink-publishing.com

Ink Publishing
UK: 141-143 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JE +44 20 7613-8777 switchboard +44 845 280-2413 fax
USA: 208 East 51st Street, New York, NY 10022 +1 888 685-1681 switchboard +1 646 349-3844 fax
Singapore: 97B Amoy Street, Singapore 069917 +65 6491-5261 fax