British Airways teams up with Iberia and American Airlines

British Airways has now confirmed that it will seek to create a joint business with Iberia-Spain’s flag carrier-and American Airlines, in terms of transatlantic flights. According to a Bloomberg report, the three airlines will go public with a detailed proposal within a matter of one week and it will then be up to regulatory bodies in the US, the UK and Spain to either approve or reject the deal. If the agreement goes through as planned, the three airlines would jointly operate all transatlantic routes between the European Union and the United States.

Fernando Conte, Iberia’s chairperson, appears to be quite optimistic about the chances of the deal going through and receiving approval from US regulators, despite the fact that a similar merger was rejected on two separate occasions, namely in 1997 and 2002. Yet close cooperation among the three airlines is in many ways already a reality, considering the fact that British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia are members of the same alliance-oneworld-and have the right to sell tickets on each other’s flights. Frequent fliers of any of these carriers can also collect and redeem points when travelling with any member airline.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier today that British Airways will have completed a detailed plan for the merger of the two carriers, in terms of transatlantic operations, within 14 days. Specifics on the form of cooperation between BA and Iberia might be forthcoming even sooner than that. The fact that BA and AA are looking to merge should come as no surprise to most, considering that both carriers announced their intention early this past spring.

Thank you to Paul Tobin for the initial report.

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