A new global agreement was signed earlier this week. Travelport had announced that, on July 21, they had signed a new global, full content deal with Iberia. This new multi-year agreement gives Travelport’s two GDSs, Galileo and Worldspan, full access to the Spanish flag carrier’s inventory and fares.

Travelport went on to say that Iberia was just one of the European carriers that they have signed a new deal with. The general manager off Travelport, Jerome Moisan, said that both Travelport and Iberia are also committed to exploring new opportunities . One of the areas that they want to look into more is Latin America, and right now, Iberia is currently in merger talks with British Airways, which is the leading airline in the European and Latin American markets.

Experts agree that many new deals like this are likely to go underway. In fact, many mergers like the one between Iberia and British Airways have been in talks for awhile, and the current economic climate is making these talks move forward very quickly. Many airlines are currently dealing with problems that could be too big for them to handle by themselves, and thus, they choose to merge together with other airlines.

However, the European Competition Commission is not allowing any mergers to go through if they it feel could hurt competition and rates. They go on to say that just because the economy is bad now does not mean that it will stay that way forever. When it improves, where will the airline industry be at if all mergers get approved?