In the last days i have "heard" very interesting rumors regarding IB corporate future .

As you would probably know the entrance of BA/AA into IB capital was the first step into further consolidation . IB choosed BA ,and BA choosed IB as partner in the UNAVOIDABLE european airlines consolidation process .

Well , since WW arrived at BA thing are getting problematic between IB and BA .

WW started saying that further IB/BA integration wans't needed , the priority was increase profitability of the respective airlines and in any case nothing before a US-EU agreement ...

..but things are gettings worse since the last annual BA report de facto rejected a IB merger and WW made declarations that an IB merger was not ".. in the agenda" .

Enrique Dupuy de Lôme , financial director of IB made a long interview in Bloomberg TV Spain talking about the future of IB and strongly stated that IB will be part of the next consolidation process in Europe . He was asked for the obvious partner BA , and he was enigmatic ..." ..if a BA merger is not possible , despite been our first choise , IB will look to other options .. " , he said .


All this was know ... but what's new is that IB/AF and the goverments of Spain and France are discussing EADS and IB's future as a part of a big deal .

The next IB order of 30 new long-haul planes are on the table .


The "rumor" i have heard from people well inside IB , is that IB is going to , or has already made , an ultimatum to BA to decide or at least to make a firm compromise to consolidate with IB , or if not it will go with AF-KLM

This FA rumor is not new , a few years ago transcende that FA was interested on IB , and offered to IB/MAD been the hub for the LatAm operations ... apparently THIS is the KEY point at stake this time .


I say this in order to responde to all the people that had complain in this forums about the presence of IB in OneWorld ( .. statements like IB don't deserve to be with "superior" airlines like BA , etc .. ) .. well , their desires very well could be satisfyed pretty soon .

I know that the rumor is AF , Alitalia .. but apparently the real thing is IB-AF-KLM .


I personally would prefer and INDEPENDENT IB , but IB managment don't considers this to be possible in the future , .. but if the french goverment offer is MUCH better .. IB will go with AF-KLM .

The showdown this FALL .