I still, for the life of me, can't see the attraction of this deal from BA's point of view. (I can see why the merger might be attractive to Iberia.)
I've heard the arguments from so-called "City experts" but in terms of brand image it looks to me like the Daimler-Benz/Chrysler merger. Merging with Iberia will do harm to BA's brand, without doubt.
The BA/KLM merger would have made much more sense. The plan, as I understood it, was to route low yield longhaul traffic from regional UK airports via Amsterdam, keeping Heathrow for high yield nonstop traffic.
Terminal 4 at Barajas is magnificent (much nicer than T5 at LHR, in my view) but given its geographical position doesn't offer the same connection possibilities.
Latin America? Don't make me laugh! The so-called "experts" referred to above trot out this mantra but are they serious? How big is the UK-Latin America market? Miniscule, I'd have thought.