IAG TO MERGE BA WITH IBERIA
 

Rumour is as a per thread and it is said BA pilot seniority list will be tacked onto end of Iberia seniority list :eek:

Did you make that one up yourself?

:rolleyes:

THE PEANUT BAR must be in Madrid:E

I'm going to ask you to put down that jug of sangria, there's good lad.

God forbid - iberia is the world's worst airline, with the world's worst ground staff being in Barajas

I'll second that. And it's not based on one or two bad experiences. It's based on many, many flights on Iberia both when I lived in Spain and subsequently. I'm not a masochist, but at the time I mostly had no choice.

Anyway, I don't think BA will be merged with IB.

The following is not a rumour and has nothing to do with the beginning....

Eye to the data, which is not small: following the nationalization in the coming days of Bankia, the Spanish State will be the major shareholder of International Airlines Group (IAG), the company resulting from the merger, two years ago, Iberia and British Airways.
Have you read it well: Spanish State is about to be the principal owner of the flag carrier airline of United Kingdom. :ok:

The Spanish state will be the major shareholder in IAG, of which BA is part, BA is not the British Flag Carrier.

Then who is? Easyjet?

What's a Flag Carrier?

BHD2BFS; Virgin claims to be the Flag Carrier for the UK since the controversial world scheme program by BA back in the 90's when BA added various aircraft tail scheme from different countries around the world. So perhaps the poster is referring to Virgin, who seized the moment to proclaim that it was proud to fly the flag and had this painted on it's aircraft both on the winglets and on the fuselage etc. Virgin is a minow in the grand scheme of things ex the UK. So to me BA is undisputed 'flag carrier'.

Easyjet are very pan european and 60% of their traffic originates outside of the UK I would say they are not. Besides being called a flag carrier is a badge and doesnt exactly mean profitability.

IAG is a profitable entity and a going concern, whether Bankia is a shareholder and hence the Spanish government is not very relevant, I would suggest that anything that is not core to the Bank would be sold and if so the share of IAG could be bought by BA at some point....

Nothing to worry about at all....

To me a flag carrier is the thing of the past, it is the carrier that represented a nation and inevitably with it was government owned or controlled.

Nowadays there are many airlines that represent the U.K. in different ways and to a different extent so I would say we do not have nor need a flag carrier.

However that digresses from the point I belive the poster who stressed the point that the British flag carrier was almost a Spanish national assett intended it to appear wrong or belittling, however that would be incorrect as many assetts in the U.K. are now foreign owned and controlled.

As an alternative could you say a British Flag carrier is any airline thats aircraft carry the British flag on its fuselage?

NEWYEAR - I'm not quite clear what you're trying to express. It seems that once Bankia is nationalised the Spanish state will have a 12% equity stake in IAG. Presumably the Spanish Govt would manage this at arm's length to avoid a charge of acting overtly as directors in what is essentially a private company. Certainly enough to ask for a seat on the board if Bankia so wish. Certainly enough for Spain to be able to exert influence behind the scenes if they so wish. A long way from having any kind of management control

the Spanish Govt have a lot higher priorities than running an airline on a day to day basis

Well, the term is also used loosely to refer to any dominant or major airline sized carrier in a country, or in reference to a mainline carrier with a history of a state sponsored legacy of airline service, even long after their privatization.

Anyway, will see if Mr Rajoy has to ask something to Mr Cameron... :ok:
Flights...
Promotions...
T4...
Heathrow...
...:E

IAG Cargo
 

Maybe I missed it but BAWC will be absorbed into IAG cargo as will IB and AA cargo operations, that is fact.

In the fullness of time indeed BA and IB staff will be TUPE'D onto IAG contracts thus saving a great deal of cash.

Surely this amalgamation or whatever we would like to consider it is merely set up to do just this. Exactly what has happened to BMI !

Why would AA cargo operations be adsorbed into IAG? AA not owned by IAG/BA... yes BA have had asperations, and also where is the AA cargo operation based, I didnt realise that they had one.

There are no IAG contracts. IAG is a holding/management company with a small set of staff. bmi was a different scenario to the formation of IAG from the merger of BA and IB.

And this is complete bunkum:

BA and IB operations will not be merged.

The whole rationale behind the IAG structure is that airlines that join IAG keep their own brands and operations.

BA and IB have different brands and marketing positions and separate operations and it will stay that way (bmi was different in that was essentially bust and there was no logic in keeping the brand/operation separate from BA). That way you don't dilute the local commercial/operational expertise and market presence of BA and IB nor do you distract them from day to day operations, leaving IAG focused on overall group strategy and revenue/cost synergies from merging the back office functions in IT etc.

IAG has seen how hard it has been to merge large airline operations within the same country (see US Airways) and I don't think anyone would seriously contemplate a cross border merger of airline operations. It's more trouble than it's worth.

There's another compelling reason for NOT merging airlines from different countries. At the moment flights between pairs of countries one of which is outside the EU are mostly still governed by bilateral treaties between the countries concerned, allowing only airlines domiciled in those countries to carry traffic. If you decide to merge, you automatically lose a significant part of your network. The EU is busy negotiating treaties that allow airlines domiciled in any EU country to fly from any other, and of course this already happens for flights wholly within the EU and for destinations as varied as the USA and Morocco, but it will take years for the whole world to be covered by these agreements.

BA/IB merger
 

Can't see it happening, there is no need and no point!

AF and KL did not do it, nor did LH, LX, SN, OS, etc..