Alberto, dlcmdrx
Firstly, I wish all those affected by this announcement all the very best for the future.
However, I think you need to look at the bigger picture within Europe.
Spain (along with other economies like Greece and Portugal) are in severe difficulties. It is not just Iberia, it is the whole country, built on money primarily from Germany etc. Look at the infrastructure that has been put in place in the last decade or so - the motorways, the airport expansion, the railways - none of this has been generated by real Spanish growth, it has all come from public borrowing sponsored by the EU and Germany.
It has all come crashing down and been exposed as a charade and the result is falling house prices and 25% unemployment etc.
Many think that the deal done by IAG to give shareholders of Iberia 45%? and BA 55% of the new company was far too generous to Iberia and that it was done only because BA had missed the boat with KLM twice and lost out to Air France on that one.
As to route giveaways, it holds no water, BA has flown twice daily (and played at 3 daily) to JNB for years now. BA has flown to MEX for decades at 3/weekly and is now moving to 5/weekly in 2013, I understand, not at the expense of Iberia, but due to growth. The UK is forecast to be the fastest growing economy within the EU for the next 2-3 years.
Maybe you would like to explain how Iberia's most profitable route is now LHR (not LHW, btw) to JFK - a route they don't even fly? Without that 'profit', how much more would Iberia have lost?
Feel free to drown your sorrows in a cerveza or a rioja of two, but you need to get a dose of reality pronto, imho.