Budget carrier, bmi has announced that in the month of March, it will stop operating its daily service between Inverness and Heathrow, as part of a route network shake-up.

Other changes include: increase in the number of bmi's flights between Heathrow and Moscow Domodedovo to double, make improvements in the schedule for the thrice-daily service between Heathrow and Durham Tees Valley and increase the number of bmi's service between Manchester and Heathrow.

The decision of the airline to stop operating its flights from Inverness to London on the 29th of March has been taken as a result of poor sales and the hike in Air Passenger Duty, and the carrier says that it did not hope that there will be any improvement in its passenger numbers on this route.

bmi's managing director, Peter Spencer, said, "We are very disappointed that there has been insufficient demand to operate a viable profitable operation but load factors have not been sufficiently high enough to sustain the service.

Charges such as the punitive Air Passenger Duty that affect domestic travellers in particular have made fares higher, and the inflation-busting airport charge increases that have been implemented at Heathrow over the last few years, which are set to grow even faster from April 2008, also put further pressure on short haul services such as Inverness".

bmi will also drop  its flights from Inverness to Nice and Alicante set to be offered in the summer season. Flights between Heathrow and Leeds Bradford will also be cut to 4 daily flights.