British Airways (BA) is considering a bid for Virgin Atlantic Airways to foil a proposed merger between Virgin and BMI British Midland, the Financial Timesreported today.
BA managers were to meet in emergency session today in what is seen as a bid to put the brakes on BA's two largest rivals at Heathrow going in together.
A BA spokesman said yesterday the heavyweight airline was not ruling out any option following confirmation last week that Sir Richard Branson's Virgin and BMI had held talks on merging.
Those talks have been scaled back and the two - both privately held carriers - are discussing ways to better cooperate.
BA is saddled with huge debts of more than £5 billion sterling that would make a bid for Virgin a daunting challenge.
AFP