If anything, and this is purely speculation, I could see Lufthansa cherry picking a few slots for themselves, their subsidiaries or to trade with Star Alliance partners, plus some to sell, and then use the carcass of bmi to sell to another company as a ploy to help get their buyouts of OS/SN through with the EU mergers commission. British Airways stated in, I think it was The Times, in 2007 when SMB was first mulling calling his options, that if bmi were up for sale they would consider the airline at the right price as a strategic move. Obviously all speculation, and for those of us who've been with bmi long enough, stranger things have happened.