Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa in talks about bmi

Virgin Atlantic is reported to be in discussions with Lufthansa about the future of bmi. Lufthansa recently took control of bmi, and Virgin Atlantic has expressed an interest in the airline’s take-off and landing slots at Heathrow airport.

The information came to light on Wednesday, adding more speculation about mergers, not long after British Airways and Qantas revealed they were in talks about creating the largest airline in the industry.

“These discussions may or may not lead to an agreement and a further announcement will be made in due course,” said Virgin Atlantic in a statement.

Steve Ridgway, the chief executive of the airline, said to Reuters back in October that a possible tie-up with bmi could make for a “very compelling opportunity,” and one that could make Virgin Atlantic a stronger competitor to British Airways.

According to Virgin, its long-haul operations would make a good complement to bmi’s mostly shorter-haul routes.

Its primary interest in bmi relates to the carrier’s slots at Heathrow. Bmi has 12 per cent of the airport slots, which is considerably more than the 3 per cent owned by Virgin – but still a long way from the more than 40 per cent owned by BA.

Bmi’s founder Michael Bishop exercised an option in October that saw Lufthansa take control of the airline by increasing its share to around 80 per cent.

Thanks to uk.reuters.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.virgin-atlantic.com