BA & Iberia sign off on AA deal

British Airways and Iberia have finally signed a strategic alliance with American Airlines to cooperate on flights between Europe and North America. “The joint business will launch this October,” British Airways said in a statement this morning. “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.” BA of course agreed an $8 billion merger with Iberia in April, creating the world’s third biggest airline and bringing it a step closer to a tie-up with AMR Corp’s