Quote: "The merger made sense at the time.

BA had no scope for growth at LHR when bmi was in Lufthansa's hands and there were soundings that the other airline groups were looking at Iberia. If Iberia had been bought by either AFKLM or Lufthansa Oneworld would have been seriously weakened in Europe."

Indeed, having "missed the boat" with KL, and with its subsequent link with AF, BA had to join with IB.

Title of this thread is rather misleading. BA did not make a loss but rather an operating profit of 286million Euros, IAGs overall results were dragged down by Iberia. BA is doing rather well in current times. I am sure that Iberia once restructured will do the same.
V.