The airline's inaugural flight departed for Malaga two years ago on the day that Cardiff was battered by heavy storms. In contrary to its first day in operation, bmibaby's history at the airport has been smooth and successful. In June bmibaby celebrated carrying its millionth passenger on its services from Cardiff and has successfully established eleven European routes over the past 24 months.

Cardiff International Airport, the UK's second fastest-growing airport in 2003, handled more than 1.9 million passengers in the year. Exceptional growth in passengers from bmibaby contributed to the airport's excellent performance.

To celebrate its second birthday in Wales, bmibaby will be pledging £1 from every booking made on bmibaby flights from Cardiff on Wednesday (27 October 2004) to The Noah's Ark Appeal. bmibaby will also be holding a birthday celebration at the airport to commemorate reaching its milestone, with prizes of flight credits for passengers checking in for flights. On Friday, the Cardiff Blues will be holding a celebratory birthday match to commemorate the airline's milestone and the sponsorship deal. Any children taking birthday cards for Tiny, the airline's mascot, to the stadium will gain free entry to the match.

Cardiff based bakers Memory Lane will be supplying a complimentary birthday cake, which the airline will display at the airport today and share with children at the Cardiff Blues match on Friday.

Also at the Blues game, juniors will be able to take up the climbing wall challenge and enter a mascot competition by drawing birthday cards for tiny, with the winner being announced at half time in the Heineken Cup fixture.

Director's of the airline will be in attendance at the match to present the tiny's choice award, to recognise outstanding contribution or particpation in grass roots rubg in the Blues region, to this month's nominee.

The celebrations will continue, with bmibaby staff at Cardiff Airport handing out give-aways to passengers checking-in. Passengers who are travelling on bmibaby services on Wednesday and celebrating a birthday that day, should make themselves known to a member of check-in staff where they'll receive a special birthday present from bmibaby in the form of £75 worth of travel credits to spend on future flights.

Tony Davis, managing director of bmibaby, commented:
"We're very proud of what we've achieved over the past two years at Cardiff International Airport. We have established eleven very successful routes which local travellers have responded well to. The increase in capacity to Belfast for our winter timetable, which starts this weekend, will be beneficial to business travellers. We continue to work closely with the airport to evaluate further opportunities for flights and we've further extended our marketing agreement with Air Wales enabling us to sell flights to Jersey, a popular year round route."

Cardiff International Airport's Sales and Marketing Manager Vincent Rey explains:
"We are delighted with bmibaby's success and progress at Cardiff international Airport over the last two years. bmibaby has greatly contributed towards the airport's rapid growth in passenger numbers and we look forward to continue working with them and developing further routes in the future."

Flights from Cardiff to Alicante, Belfast (International), Cork, Edinburgh, Geneva, Glasgow (Prestwick), Jersey, Malaga, Palma, Paris (Charles de Gaulle) and Prague can now be booked at bmibaby.com or by calling reservations on 0870 264 2229.

Spring 2005 will see Cardiff International Airport connected with a rail link. Work is underway on the reopening on the Vale of Glamorgan line, which is being funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. The project will cost in the region of £17 million. Initial rail services will link the airport directly with both Bridgend and Cardiff Central Stations as part of the "All Wales Franchise" operated by Arriva Trains.

The project includes building new stations at Rhoose and Llantwit Major, together with a new platform at Bridgend. The track will be upgraded to allow trains to travel at higher speeds than the existing track allows and additional signalling will be provided to increase capacity of the route.
Visit bmibaby, the airline with tiny fares at www.bmibaby.com