British Airways Not Looking to Exit Iberia

British Airways wants to strengthen its relationship with partner Iberia but sees lengthy discussions with the Spanish airline’s main shareholder Caja Madrid on its future.

“We are a significant shareholder and we’ve got a good relationship with the management team at Iberia,” BA’s Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, said on Wednesday. “I am very pleased with the relationship that we have with Iberia and we are not looking to exit that relationship.”

BA has 10 percent of the Spanish airline, a perennial takeover candidate. Caja Madrid has around 24 percent.

Caja Madrid said last month that BA would have to offer an attractive partnership to Iberia or risk it defecting to rivals Air France or Lufthansa.

BA and Iberia, which is a major player in Latin America, are both members of the One World alliance of airlines and have a code-sharing deal on flights between Britain and Spain.

British Airways launched an unsuccessful bid for the carrier with TPG, the private equity group, last year, and ever since its March approach, speculation has swirled that Air France and Lufthansa could bid.

They abandoned that approach in November after Caja Madrid bought 13 percent of Iberia, leapfrogging BA as the biggest shareholder and sending a clear signal it was not interested in selling to the consortium.