bmibaby is celebrating after being crowned Best No Frills Airline 2004 in the prestigious Telegraph Travel Awards. It's a double victory for the airline after scooping the award in 2003 after just 18 months in operation.

The award was presented to David Bryon, the airline's commercial director by Little Britain star Matt Lucas, who is also the voice of the airline's mascot, Tiny, in its radio advertising campaigns. Matt Lucas hosted and presented the travel awards at a gala ceremony held last night (Monday 11 October 2004) at the Waldorf Hilton, London.

Tony Davis, managing director, bmibaby, said:

"We're absolutely thrilled to be the recipients of this fabulous award for the second year in succession. Our pledge and thanks to the readers of The Daily Telegraph who voted us into the top spot is to now dedicate this award to offering even more services to more destinations in 2005. Receiving awards, especially when they are voted for by our customers is a real honour and to receive it twice in what is only our 31st month in operation proves that we're a low cost airline that's getting it right."

2004 has already seen bmibaby re-launch its website to become more customer friendly and launch online seat selection, allowing passengers to choose their specific seat on the aircraft at the time of booking. bmibaby was the first airline to use an express integrated check-in facility at Nottingham East Midlands Airport, the first of its kind in Europe, and has both a generous hand-baggage and checked-baggage allowance.

bmibaby is set to operate over seven hundred flights a week throughout Europe with the introduction of services from Birmingham International Airport on 7 January 2005, adding to its existing European operations from Nottingham East Midlands, Cardiff, Manchester, London Gatwick and Durham Tees Valley airports. Last year the airline carried in excess of three million passengers on its services throughout the UK & Channel Islands, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Ireland, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Portugal.