In today's Leicester Mercury
bmibaby airline, Castle Donington, airport, leicestershire | This is Leicestershire
Low-cost airlines easyJet and Flybe have declined to rule themselves out as the mystery buyer of rival bmibaby.
It comes after another rival, Jet2, yesterday told the Leicester Mercury it had not bought the carrier from Castle Donington airline group BMI.
Many analysts had suggested the Leeds-based operator was the likely buyer after BMI announced on Wednesday it had completed a preliminary deal to sell its budget subsidiary to a UK business.
Luton-based Monarch has also denied being the buyer.
BMI will not name the buyer or provide any more details about the deal.
When asked yesterday if they had bought bmibaby, spokeswomen for both Luton-based easyJet and Exeter-based Flybe would neither confirm or deny the suggestion.