THE founder of Castle Donington airline BMI has stepped down from the board of directors following the sale of the business to a German carrier.

Sir Michael Bishop last week sold his majority stake in the business to Lufthansa for £223m.

The Cologne-based group took over the running of BMI this week and yesterday announced changes to its board.

Sir Michael has stepped down as chairman of the board of directors and has been replaced by Stefan Lauer, a senior director at Lufthansa.

Mr Lauer is chief executive officer of group airlines and corporate human resources at the German airline.

Jorg Hennemann, Lufthan-sa's manager of hub development and capacity management, also joins the board.

He will sit alongside BMI chief executive Nigel Turner and deputy chief executive Tim Bye as an additional executive director of the company.

Altogether, BMI's board of directors has six members – Mr Lauer, Mr Turner, Mr Bye, Mr Hennemann, Dr Holger Hatty and Benny Zakrisson.

Lufthansa, which already owned 30% of BMI, struck a deal in 1999 to buy Sir Michael's stake at a later date.

BMI, which owns about 11% of take-off and landing slots at Heathrow, employs about 1,200 people at its Donington Hall head office and East Midlands Airport.

Yesterday it was named as the most-punctual low-cost carrier in the UK.