Airlines the world over have been going through torrid times, so it is no surprise that we’ve seen so many rushed into each other’s arms to merge, getting protection from consolidation. And after a long 60-month negotiation process, British Airways and Spanish Airlines Iberia are finally joined forces, creating a huge multi-million pound airline, a prospect aviation experts are pretty excited by.

“It does make a very very strong airline, one that can, if it played its card right, if it gets its service right, if it gets their customers what they want, it can gain lot of revenue potential in the end, and of course, over the cost of synergy benefits as well.”

And those synergies or savings, the company said would eventually be 360m pounds. The two global airlines combined will have more than 400 planes, and their passenger numbers are about the same. But even though British Airways has almost twice as many as the staff of Iberia, unions said they won’t worry about job losses.

“I don’t think we have anything to fear about this. I think it could be good positive news. Er, for what at the moment seems to be a struggling airline. No one would want to see British Airways struggle. We everybody wants to see is a really good, sound, successful airline.”

However, this deal gives Iberia 45% and British Airways 55% of the company, considerably less than the 60% the BA boss / wanted earlier in the talks. But his company’s huge losses and pension black hole are thought to have paid for those ambitions.

But for customer, this is all about the choice of routes. At the moment if you want to travel to North or Central America or the middle of Far East, British Airways is the way to go. But Iberia has Latin America stitched up. So in theory, after the merger, let’s say you want to go from Dubai to Rio de Janeiro, it would be a lot easier for you and a lot more profitable for the company. In fact, BA customers will now have access to 59 new destinations, and Iberia will get to fly to 98 new airports. But until this recession is over and the market picks up, the new company is very unlikely to make any new profit at all.