The BA-Iberia "merger" reminds me to some extent of another one - that between Mercedes Benz and Chrysler (okay, that was a takeover). I cannot see it working for BA. If Madrid was somewhere else there might be more in it for BA, as Terminal 4 at Barajas is wonderful. With sterling so weak against the euro, the BA "share" of the merged entity would be woefully low. Furthermore, BA would suffer from being more closely associated with an airline with, in my experience, poor customer service standards. Iberia is, I think, about to come under significant attack on its prized domestic routes by Ryanair, not to mention the rapidly expanding network of high speed trains. I don't understand why BA is pursuing this merger. Previous ones (United, US Airways, KLM, Qantas) made much more sense.