Word: iberia
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...Read: "Will the British Airways and Iberia Merger Lift...
...have had my stomach kicked out by a bunch of overpaid waiting staff," said another, Aoin Douglas of Liverpool. Cabin crew at BA typically earn more than those of any other British airlines and twice as much as those of rival Virgin Atlantic. (Read "Will the British Airways and Iberia Merger Lift...
...merger, slated for completion late next year, is simple. BA and Iberia - combined annual revenues: $22 billion - are chasing their rivals' tails. Germany's Lufthansa, Europe's second-largest airline, has picked up smaller carriers from Austria to Switzerland in recent months. Thanks to the 2004 merger of the French and Dutch airlines, Air France-KLM is even further out in front. Troubled Iberia and BA, which both announced ugly losses over the past week, reckon eliminating duplicate services from fleet maintenance to business class lounges will save the airlines $600 million a year. That'll mean "a strong European...
With runaway costs and labor disputes scuttling plenty of these deals in the past, BA and Iberia - set to keep their separate brands and operating divisions under a new Spain-based holding company - will need to proceed with caution. Sure, rough economic head winds and the business of turning two firms into one can give cost cutting real momentum. The tough trading conditions following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were, after all, a "catalyst for the success of [the Air France-KLM merger] at the time," says Howard Wheeldon, an aviation expert at brokers BGC Partners in London. (Read "British...
...imposing those cuts, including slashing jobs, could be tricky. The staff at both airlines are heavily unionized. Hundreds of Iberia flights have been grounded in recent days due to a cabin crew strike over pay; a separate dispute among flight attendants at BA could see more planes parked in the run-up to Christmas...