British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) has agreed with Lufthansa (LH/Frankfurt Intl) to acquire bmi british midland (BD/East Midlands). The deal is still subject to the blessing of competition authorities given the large amounts of additional slots at London’s Heathrow airport British Airways would get access to and under heavy opposition from its competitor Virgin Atlantic (VS/London Heathrow) that had been bidding for bmi as well. It is understood that the deal does not include bmibaby (WW/East Midlands) and bmi regional (II/Aberdeen) that Lufthansa is trying to sell off separately. International Airlines Group, the parent of British Airways and Iberia (IB/Madrid Barajas), is said to be the favourite bidder for TAP Portugal (TP/Lisbon) and has publicly announced its interest in taking a stake in LAN Airlines (LA/Santiago de Chile). It has however ruled out a bid for Aer Lingus (EI/Dublin). BA and Qantas (QF/Sydney) have introduced changes to their joint flights between the UK and Australia. Qantas will cancel its routes from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Hong Kong to London Heathrow from March 24 while British Airways will cancel its Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Sydney flights by March 3. British Airways has introduced other new routes: London Gatwick-Algiers: daily B737-400 service starting on March 25 (route transferred from Heathrow) London Gatwick-Antigua-Tobago: weekly B777-200ER service starting on March 30 (replacing 2x weekly London Gatwick-Barbados-Tobago) London Gatwick-Mauritius: 3x weekly B777-200ER service has started on October 31 (route transferred from London Heathrow) London Gatwick-Nice: 3x daily A319-100/B737-400 service starting on March 25 (in addition to London City-Nice and London Heathrow-Nice routes) London Heathrow-Bologna Marconi: daily A319-100/A320-200 service starting on April 29 (in addition to London Gatwick-Bologna Marconi route) London Heathrow-Tripoli Intl: daily A320-200 service resuming on March 25 British Airways has converted two options for B777-300ERs into firm orders with deliveries scheduled for 2013. It has however temporarily suspended its routes from London Gatwick to Paphos for the winter timetable period and has permanently given up its London Gatwick-Cagliari route.