Budget airline bmibaby has announced that 158 of its 633 employees are to be made redundant after a 90-day consultation period. The job losses will include 54 pilots and 82 cabin crew based at Manchester, Cardiff and Birmingham airports. There will also be 22 management redundancies.

bmibaby will consolidate its operations into East Midlands Airport, and will expand the number of routes it operates from there. This will lead to 25 new jobs at the airport and staff at its other bases will be consulted on whether they want to move.

The airline said the restructuring programme will enable it to concentrate on core operations and activities and to adjust existing schedules and frequencies to maximise their potential. The changes will result in its aircraft fleet shrinking from 17 to 12 aircraft.