New talks have started dealing with British Airways wishing to buy out the second largest carrier at Heathrow Airport, BMI. The British Airways chairman, Martin Broughton, has been in talks in Germany over the weekend with Lufthansa. Right now Lufthansa is the current owner of BMI. British Airways has, of course, chosen not to comment on these speculations.

Other reports also show that other airlines are interested in buying BMI from Lufthansa as well. These rumors of British Airways wanting to takeover BMI for £1 billion were started way back in 2007. This rumor also got started after the BMI executive chairman, Sir Michael Bishop, said that he was planning on selling his 50 percent share of the company.

Right now any airline that is looking to establish a transatlantic presence would be able to do it with the help of BMI. After all, BMI owns 13 percent of the Heathrow Airport’s take off and landing slots for these kinds of routes. The acquisition of BMI would be a great way for British Airways to gain more slots at Heathrow, which has announced some plans to merge with American Airlines as well.

The British Airways CEO, Willie Walsh, said that the airline would consider the purchase of BMI’s slot at London Heathrow if the slots came open. He did go on to note that in the current environment it is very hard to say that they would go out and acquire the slots for good. However, he also is aware that this could be the only chance that they would ever get, so it’s safe to say that British Airways would focus on it very heavily.