BMI Baby owner Lufthansa is reportedly in talks to sell the low-cost carrier to German turnaround firm Intro Aviation. The news came on Friday via Intro’s chief executive Peter Oncken, who said in an interview that his company had “expressed interest” and that the sale process was getting underway. He added that the company was [...]

International Airlines Group has announced that it has reached a deal to acquire BMI from its German owners. IAG, the parent firm of British Airways and Iberia, said in an official statement released on Thursday that it had signed a £172.5 million deal and hoped the acquisition would be completed within the first three months [...]

BMI has said it has not yet chosen a buyer. The troubled company is at the centre of a bidding war in which International Airlines Group (IAG), British Airway’s parent company, and Virgin Atlantic seek the Lufthansa-owned entity in order to take hold of its valuable landing slots at overcrowded Heathrow airport. The news comes [...]

Concerns about future links to Heathrow from Belfast City Airport have been aired by MPs after Owen Paterson, Secretary for State, admitted that he had been in talks with International Airlines Group CEO Willie Walsh. The company, which owns Iberia and British Airways, is looking to purchase beleaguered carrier BMI from Lufthansa. Mr Walsh said [...]

BMI owner Lufthansa has said it has agreed to sell the airline to British Airways’ parent company IAG. Germany’s flag carrier and International Airlines Group said on Friday that details on the sale are not yet complete but said hoped a draft agreement would be signed within a few weeks and that the deal would [...]

Italy has become the first European country to resume commercial flights to Libya following the toppling of the Kaddafi Government. Wednesday saw Alitalia carry a flight with 100 passengers –many of whom were religious leaders and diplomats – from Rome airport to Libya’s capital city. Goffredo Buccino, the new Italian ambassador to its former colony [...]

Heavy competition appears to be driving down profits a both of Belfast’s airports, according to analysts. Pre-tax profits for Belfast City Airport only amounted to £15,000 this year on a £17.1 million turnover in 2010, marking a substantial drop from the £433,000 seen the year prior. Similarly, Belfast International Airport’s profits dropped a full 11 [...]

British Airways has expressed interest in bidding on BMI, Heathrow’s second largest airline. BA and Iberia’s parent firm International Airlines Group (IAG) has said it wants to acquire the airline not to take over its operations but instead to obtain its landing and slots at highly overcrowded Heathrow airport. BMI has rights to roughly 11 [...]

The Civil Aviation Authority has published statistics which show that over the last four years, the number of passengers making use of smaller regional airports has dropped by as much as 70 per cent. Much of the blame for this has been placed on Air Passenger Duty which has gone up 140 per cent on [...]

Germany’s Lufthansa Group has reported operating profits of €876 million for 2010. The figure marks an impressive increase on those seen in 2009 when it posted profits of just €130 million as it emerged from the economic downturn. The company cited a number of factors for the improvement including increased demand in both its passenger [...]