Despite the embellishment on the tails, BA is NOT a British company. In fact it is not a company at all. Since the formation of ICAG this year, BA and Iberia have become brands owned by a Spanish registered company. Spain is also where it will pay its corporation etc. taxes. At the moment it started trading on the London and Madrid stock exchanges ICAG was owned 55% by former BA shareholders and 45% by former Iberia shareholders. ICAG was not owned jointly by BA aand Iberia. They have gone. They are over as standalone companies and reduced simply to brands. From the minute when the first shares in ICAG were traded it therefore became irrelevant how they were obtained. By now their shareholders could be entirely different. ICAG's Head Office is currently in London (North Side , Heathrow) but it could be anywhere. Again, its country of registration is Spain. It is a Spanish company so the notion of it being "The UK flag carrier" is now a fiction.