BRITISH MIDLAND AIRWAYS LIMITED

HISTORY: BRITISH MIDLAND AIRWAYS LIMITED (trading at various times throughout its history as British Midland, BMI British Midland, BMI or British Midland International) was an airline with its head office in Donington Hall in Castle Donington, close to East Midlands Airport, in the United Kingdom. The airline dates back to 1938, when Captain Roy Harben established Air Schools Limited as a school for training pilots of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Air Schools Limited formed a parent company, Derby Aviation Limited, in 1946. In 1953, Derby Aviation ceased flying training, following the award of a licence to operate scheduled flights from Burnaston and Wolverhampton to Jersey. In 1959, Derby Aviation formed Derby Airways as its airline business and introduced a new livery incorporating the new airline's name. Domestic scheduled flights within the United Kingdom began the same year. On 1 October 1964, after buying the Manchester Airport-based scheduled and charter airline Mercury Airlines, the company changed its name to British Midland Airways (BMA) and moved operations from Burnaston to the recently opened East Midlands Airport. BMI's last-ever commercial flight using a "BD"-prefixed flight number touched down at London Heathrow on 27 October 2012 (Integrated into British Airways).