BMI Aircraft

British airline BMI, Heathrow second -largest airline, will be taken over by German airline Lufthansa.

Lufthansa already owns approximately 30% of BMI shares and now it will buy another 50% from Sir Michael Bishop, the airline’s owner. This deal will bring Lufthansa in close competition with Heathrow’s main airline, which is British Airways.

The German carrier will take over the 54 planes and the flights to the 51 destinations BMI was dealing with, as well as an average 10 million passengers a year.

This deal was somewhat sealed since 1999, when Lufthansa signed an agreement that if BMI would ever sell their shares, they would buy them. The final signature is to be given on the 16th of January, if the British competition authorities have no argument. The contract has an estimated worth of about £318 million.

Lufthansa is already experienced in taking over other airlines, as proven by the integration of Swiss Airlines some time ago.  They have declared that there will be no personnel made redundant and that things will basically stay the same.

The remaining 20% of BMI are currently owned by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS).