Birmingham is to lose air links to a number of key business cities from next spring. Bmibaby, the low cost carrier subsidiary of Bmi, has announced it is to end services on to Rome, Madrid and Milan as well as Lisbon and Bordeaux from 29 March 2009.

A bmibaby spokesman said: “bmibaby, in common with many other low cost airlines, has decided to rationalise its services for 2009 and has today announced that next summer it will suspend seasonal services to Rome Fiumicino, Milan Bergamo, Lisbon, Madrid and Bordeaux from Birmingham International Airport for the period 29 March to 24 October 2009. These seasonal summer 2009 routes are being suspended in response to a weakening of consumer demand, which is being impacted upon by the current economic climate and its unpredictability.”

Pilots' union Balpa said the airline had ended leases on three aircraft and announced a consultation period on a number of job losses and it seems likely that the services will not start again next winter.

A Birmingham Airport spokesman said: “The cancellation of these five routes shows that Birmingham is not immune to the current economic slowdown and that the coming year will be a challenging one.”

It added: “One of the cancelled bmibaby routes will still operate from Birmingham and the airport company will be doing all it can to reinstate the suspended routes as soon as possible, either with bmibaby or an alternative airline.”

The airline is offering a full refund to affected passengers. Services to Milan are operated from Birmingham by FlyBE on a codeshare with British Airways.