British Airways and Iberia Miss Merger Deadline

The very big merger between British Airways and Iberia will no longer be taking place in the first quarter of the year as planned. This drawback is being blamed on technical issues. However, British Airways has quashed the speculation that this failed deal was due to the disruption caused by cabin crew strikes.

These two flag carriers had first planned to seal the merger by a deadline of March 31, 2010. However, neither carrier was able to say when the process would get back on track. A spokeswoman from British Airways said that they will not sign the merger agreement with Iberia in the first quarter of 2010. This is due to some technical issues that need to be resolved, and they anticipate that the agreement will be signed in due course.

It is also understood that the hold ups are not related to British Airways cabin crew strike. The company’s £3.7 billion pensions deficit has also been ruled out as a factor, despite it being the main sticking point in the 128 months of negotiations before the deal was finally agreed on in November.

According to Spanish media, the technical issues include legal problems that have to be agreed on by both sides before the deal can be signed. It could be mid-April before the lawyers are happy with the agreement again.

A spokesman for Iberia, said that the deal will not be signed in the first quarter nor by the end of the week, but shortly after. They are ironing out some technical issues that are present. This has nothing to do with the British Airways strike or the British Airways pension issue.