Wolfgang Prock-Schauer slips into the hot seat at bmi

German flag carrier, Lufthansa, will no longer push to sell recent acquisition bmi and instead will concentrate on trying to turn around the loss-making airline. This became apparent when the company confirmed it was no longer in talks with buyers.

Industry experts estimate Lufthansa would need to sell the airline for about £500 million to recover its investment, and also cover bmi's losses this year. They felt potential buyers were nowhere near offering this amount.

bmi lost £100 million last year on a turnover of more than £1 billion and losses are expected to be about double that this year.

With the change in tack, freshly installed CEO, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, former head of Indian private carrier, Jet Airways, has now been set the task of restructuring the airline. , Prock-Schauer took over as CEO of bmi from 1 November.

Prock-Schauer replaces Nigel Turner, who becomes deputy chairman.

Lufthansa was in discussions with both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic about a possible sale soon after acquiring Sir Michael Bishop's 50 per cent stake, plus one share, for about £220 million in the airline to give it full control of bmi.