The UK carrier British Airways has finally put their signature to a long-anticipated and awaited strategic alliance deal that will see them cooperating with American Airlines and Spanish carrier Iberia on flights travelling between Europe and North America.
"The joint business will launch this October," British Airways said in a statement delivered on Wednesday.
"It will [...] enable the airlines' alliance Oneworld to compete on an equal footing with the other main global alliances that have had regulatory approval to operate transatlantic joint businesses for several years."
This past April, British Airways agreed to an $8 billion merger with Iberia, making them the third biggest airline in the world and bringing them one step closer to the alliance with AMR Corporation's American Airlines.
In July, the three airlines received approval from both the US government and the European Union to work together on this deal.
As has been evidenced frequently in the news, faced with continuously mounting competition from budget no-frills airlines like Easy Jet, Flybe, Jet2, and others, the airline industry has been going through a phase of rapid consolidation. According analysts, American Airlines must find a merger partner if it plans to remain competitive against the massive wave of mergers in its home market.
British Airways is the UK's largest internationally-flying airline with over 550 destinations worldwide. Iberia is Spain's leading airline and the market leader for flights between Europe and the Latin America region. All three airlines are members of the Oneworld alliance.
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