My wife and I have BMI tickets booked some time ago for April next year. We booked on the Internet, paid by credit card, and are flying from Edinburgh to Copenhagen, but now that Bmi has been taken over by Lufthansa we are concerned about our flights. - John Rintoul, Edinburgh

Sunday Times travel expert Richard Green responds: For the time being, if you have a flight booked with Bmi for next year, there really isn't anything to worry about ­ the airline will continue to operate just as it does now.

Even before this particular deal was announced, Lufthansa owned 30% of Bmi's shares. Now the German carrier has bought another 50%, taking its total stake in Bmi up to 80%. The remaining 20% is owned by the Scandinavian airline, SAS.

Bmi say that "Lufthansa has been a shareholder in Bmi for over nine years and it is very much business as usual. This is a change in shareholding not a merger."

Well yes that is true, and there is plenty of precedent for Lufthansa controlling other airlines and running them with a separate identity. For example, Lufthansa already owns Swiss and Air Brussels.

In the longer term though, and way past your April flights, there are all sorts of possibilities for the future of Bmi. Lufthansa could change the direction of Bmi within the Lufthansa group, or might even decide to sell it off to another airline ­ like Virgin Atlantic maybe?

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