bmi british midland (Nottingham East Midlands) is expected to announce its plans for US services out of London Heathrow later this year. bmi will be able to launch these services as soon as the EU-US open skies treaty applies to Heathrow-US routes in March 2008. It will launch six times weekly service from Manchester to Lyon on May 25 using bmi regional (II/Aberdeen) ERJ-145s.