UK's bmi regional has a new route launching this morning (April 15, 2016) that will take a bigger stage at Routes Europe next week. The new twice daily international link between Lufthansa’s Bavarian hub in Munich and Southampton in the UK was selected by readers of Routesonline from a shortlist of ten new air links to be discussed at the forthcoming Routes Europe forum in Krakow, Poland, later this month as part of the new Route Case series of presentations.

As it continues to grow its offering from Munich, bmi regional has inaugurated its first route into South East England with the launch of flights into the southern coastal city of Southampton. The airline is offering two weekday rotations and single daily weekend rotations on the route using an Embraer ERJ-145 with a schedule offering business optimised timings and onward connections via a codeshare partnership with Lufthansa to over 200 destinations.

bmi regional announced the new route at the beginning of February and despite just two and a half months of sales is already witnessing strong forward reservations. “Since we announced the launch of this new route we’ve received excellent feedback from both corporate and leisure customers with a positive volume of early bookings,” said Jochen Schnadt, chief commercial officer, bmi regional.

We already have a very strong route between Bristol and Munich and a number of onward connections from Munich into other European destinations. This new route further cements our position as a leading European airline for both business and leisure travellers,” he added.

The launch of the new bmi regional service between Southampton and Munich opens up a convenient and frequent way for passengers to travel from the south and south east of England to Germany. It is the third German destination to be currently served directly from Southampton after Dusseldorf (Flybe) and Hamburg (VLM Airlines).

Munich is a popular destination for business travellers, with the city being one of Germany’s main financial centres and the global headquarters of many iconic global brands, including BMW and Siemens. The new flights will enable enhanced business opportunities between the vibrant business region around the Southern English coast and one of Europe’s largest commercial centres.

For leisure visitors, Munich enjoys year round appeal ranging from its famous Oktoberfest, to its spectacular Christmas markets. It is also a popular gateway for short and longer holiday opportunities year round in the nearby Bavarian and Austrian Alps, including skiing and hiking, or an escape to one of the beautiful fairy-tale castles and numerous lakes for which the area is renowned.

"Scheduled air services to Munich have been requested by businesses in the local region as well as by holiday makers in Germany looking to start their cruises from Southampton,” said Dave Lees, managing director, Southampton Airport. “Key industries that have links in our two regions include aerospace, advanced engineering and IT.”

The new route has not only gained the attention of the travelling public, but also the wider industry with network planners across Europe and even further afield voting this new service ahead of other routes such as Hainan Airlines’ Beijing – Manchester, Wizz Air’s Kutaisi – Berlin, Norwegian’s Oslo – Las Vegas and British Airways’ London – Tehran for a Routes Case presentation at Routes Europe in an exclusive Routesonline poll.

“It has been tremendous to see our audience taking the opportunity to directly influence our live event content,” said Mike Mille, head of content and industry relations, UBM EMEA Routes.

The Routes Case offering launched this year at Routes Americas with a great presentation from industry consultants ASM on Norwegian’s new routes into the Caribbean from the United States. The popularity meant two new air links were featured at Routes Asia: Air India from Delhi to San Francisco and Emirates Airline from Dubai to Clark and Cebu in the Philippines.

“We are delighted to be continuing this series at Routes Europe with the new bmi regional connection between Munich and Southampton. This route resonated with our community as many smaller regional airports across the Continent are seeking important feed into major European hubs and are eager to learn from this launch,” added Miller.

The Route Case will be taking place on April 25, 2016 and will be presented by Aidan Mooney, vice president consulting, ASM. It is one of three Routes Talks taking place at Routes Europe that morning alongside a value of data discussion with John Grant, Industry Advisor, OAG and a legal offering from Jeremy Robinson, Partner, Watson Farley & Williams LLP on how regulation could affect future route development deals.