BMI is considering flying up to 12 routes between Heathrow and the US and assures that it will have no problem finding the slots to operate them.
Chairman Sir Michael Bishop said: “There is a cocktail of ways to achieve more capacity.”
Deputy chief executive Tim Bye explained: “There are slots available at certain times of the day; you could convert less valuable services into US services, and you can swap slots within alliances – although we have enough of our own.”
He declined to disclose what US routes BMI is planning, but said: “We’ve narrowed it down from about 30 to 10 or 12.
“We have sufficient slots and we have plenty of traffic to feed on to long-haul services.”
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BMI is in talks with Russian carrier Transaero to begin a daily service to Moscow. Bye said: “We have the rights. It depends on a commercial agreement.”