What now for Donington Hall?

Amid a global downturn in air travel, the last thing any airline would want is to take over a rival which is losing a packet.
But that's exactly what Lufthansa did when it bought Castle Donington-based BMI off founder Sir Michael Bishop back in July.
Just look at the maths: it paid £223m for an airline which lost £160m last year and is believed to be losing money now.
Why did it do it? Because it had to – back in the boom days it had signed a deal with Sir Michael which meant that it would have first dibs when he hung up the 'for sale' sign.
It seemed like a great deal at the time. The world economy was booming, air travel was expanding fast, and BMI's assets include a load of landing slots at Heathrow.
They also include the 800-odd staff at Donington Hall, and all the talk there now is whether a separate head office will survive in the teeth of the worst UK recession in living memory.
Unfortunately, the omens aren't too promising.
BMI’s structure dates back to a boom economy and this isn’t. It has international, national and low cost operations, offices at Heathrow, Donington Hall and the Pegasus Business Park.
All airlines are trying to rein in costs in what is one of the most expensive industries in the world, with dear old British Airways currently engaged in a dogfight with its own staff about cutbacks. It's just done a merger deal with Spain’s Iberia which is all about that loathsome lump of management jargon 'operational synergies'.
Lufthansa is in exactly the same economic holding pattern. It is cutting routes that don't make money, sending aircraft back to leasing companies, making those it keeps work harder...and cutting the best part of 760 jobs in its mainline BMI and low-cost bmi baby operations.
Ominously, it spoke yesterday of plans for a separate 'corporate restructuring' exercise, which means getting rid of management duplication. This is what people at Donington Hall are worried about.
On the bright side, Lufthansa says it wants to get BMI in the right shape for the economic upturn, when demand for air travel is likely to rise again.
But that could mean two things: the right size to make good money for Lufthansa, or the right size to be sold to someone else.
We'll know more in the New Year.