Tom Horton, the American Airlines president, has described the transatlantic alliance with International Airlines Group – parent of British Airways and Iberia, a “synthetic merger” and indicated that the airlines would merge fully once US restrictions on foreign ownership of airlines has been lifted. Horton predicts this to happen within the next 10-15 years.
Today, foreign companies are restricted to only 25% ownership of domestic carriers but Washington is under pressure from the European Union to relax the rules.
A full merger between AA and IAG would create the largest airline in the world.
In the meantime however Horton indicated that AA and IAG were working on plans to develop their existing alliance further.