The merger that British Airways hopes will go through with Iberia has just recently been given a hurtful blow. This news came just after British Airways announced that its pension deficit had grown by £1.6 billion over the past year.
Apparently British Airways showed that its two largest pension funds have grown to £3.7 billion, up from £2.1 billion last year. This big jump has, of course, raised fears that the struggling airline will no longer be able to make payments to its entire workforce. This was one of the major hurdles that had to be dealt with during merger talks [...]

It has been a long time in the making, but British Airways and the well known Spanish airline, Iberia, have finally announced that they have reached a preliminary agreement for a merger. This announcement came just after a board meeting that took place late last week.
In a joint statement that was released, the two companies said that British Airways will have 55 percent of the new company and Iberia would hold 45 percent. The companies also feel that the merger would create about €400 million of synergies. As of right now British Airways already currently owns 13.5 percent of Iberia. [...]

After dealing with strikes already, it would seem that unions have once again presented another stage of strikes for the well known Spanish airline Iberia. The new strikes will last for eight days unless pay agreements can be reached.
As of now, the dates of the proposed strikes are from November 39th to December 2nd, and then again from December 14th through December 18th. These strikes will, of course, cause some major disruptions with holiday travelers. The airline said that they have already been forced to ground hundreds of flights this week due to the last strikes that were issued by [...]

The well known Spanish carrier, Iberia, has now been forced to cancel a number of its flights scheduled for yesterday and today due to a strike action by the airline’s cabin crew. The cabin’s attendants unions, CT and SITCPLA, have called for this strike due to disputes over wages.
Almost 450 flights will be affected by this two day strike by the Iberia cabin crew. This will include domestic, transatlantic and European services. The Madrid to London services fall among the flights that will have to be canceled.
The few Iberia flights that go under the codes IB5000, IB8000, and IB7000, which [...]

Reports now show that the European Commission has come forward and told, not only British Airways, but American Airlines and Iberia that they may have to give up take off and landing slots to press ahead with their transatlantic tie up. However, British Airways says it’s ready to refuse these antitrust concerns.
It has been said that the European Commission noted that the agreement between the three large airlines was very likely to result in appreciable competitive harm on seven different European to United states transatlantic routes.
The European Union’s competition regulator went on to point out that this agreement could break [...]

It now seems that GOL, one of the largest low cost and low fare airlines in all of Latin America, and Iberia, the well known Spanish air transport group, have announced a brand new code share agreement between their two groups. The two groups went on to say that they are exploring the idea of possibility linking their frequent flier programs as well. This would link Iberia’s Plus with GOL’s SMILES.
With this brand new code share agreement, Iberia can now add its IATA code to GOL flights from Rio de Janeiro and San Paulo to 13 Brazilian destinations. This includes, [...]

The European Commission has now come forward and voiced its concerns over a proposed venture between Iberia, American Airlines and British Airways. This venture would concern transatlantic flights.
Among some of the concerns by the European Commission is the hold that the three airlines would have on Europe to United States routes. This would include routes from London Heathrow to Miami and Dallas, which are two very big transatlantic routes.
These concerns mark the start of negotiations between the European Commission and the three carriers. Lawyers for all three airlines have the chance to respond to these concerns before a final decision [...]

A long awaited tie up between Iberia and British Airways could be underway thanks to the stock market. Right now there has been a surge in stocks over the past few weeks. This could help ease the Spanish flag carrier’s fear, Iberia, about British Airways’ £2.1 billion pension deficit. This could in turn then lead to the link up everyone has been waiting for.
Iberia has been concerned about the massive deficit at British Airways for a long time. Right now the deficit at British Airways is close to £3 billion. The good news for British Airways is that this summer [...]

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 [...]

www.britishairways.com
The recent merger talks between British Airways and Iberia have made very little headway. This is despite the fact that both airlines had offered reassurances that an imminent tie-up was underway.
Although a deal was hopefully going to be reached before summer, new reports say that this is unlikely. There turned out to be many more problems that had yet to be resolved for the merger than what the heads of the company revealed.
Willie Walsh, the British Airways chief executive, had said that the main block in the road was to clear up who has the financial control over the parent [...]