bmibaby halving its staff at Brum

Budget airline bmibaby is halving its workforce in Birmingham as it cuts 158 staff and five aircraft nationwide.

The airline said 54 pilot and 82 cabin crew positions at Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff Airports were "at risk of redundancy", as were 22 management and support positions.

Bmibaby also announced that it was reducing the number of aircraft in its fleet from 17 to 12 next year.

The Birmingham operation is currently home to five bmibaby aircraft and is thought to directly employ 133 pilots and air crew at Birmingham.

Bmibaby said today that 66 jobs were at risk at the West Midland airport.

Today's bombshell comes a year after the airline announced it was cutting 65 jobs in Birmingham as it axed five of 21 routes from the city in a bid to cut costs.

Bmibaby halted flights from Birmingham International Airport to Milan, Rome, Lisbon, Madrid and Bordeaux from March.

In June, parent company BMI was bought up by Germany's flagship airline Lufthansa in a deal costing £223 million.

Based at East Midlands Airport, BMI operates about 1,800 flights a week across its full mainline and regional network. Bmibaby, started in Birmingham in 2004.