Safety in numbers for airline companies

In the tough world of aviation, never has the phrase "big is beautiful" been more apt than now.

That is why British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia have been so keen to merge.

And even as the two make plans for a giant European carrier, transporting 60 million passengers a year, they are also hoping for a tie-up with huge US airline American Airways. Like animals in the jungle, the major carriers have reckoned that there is safety in numbers - and in the case of a BA-Iberia merger, there are some fairly impressive numbers.

The two carriers' combined fleet, for example, will total more than 400 aircraft. While some argue that these mergers produce less choice for the consumer, BA and Iberia are at pains to point out the passenger benefits of a link-up.

For instance, BA has a comparatively thin presence in central and South America, flying only to Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil and Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Iberia, on the other hand, operates numerous flights to this region so a merger allows passengers more access to South American cities.

Similarly, Iberian passengers will benefit from direct flights to areas where BA has more flights than the Spanish carrier. Airlines desiring to herd together against the threat of predators is nothing new. Both BA and Iberia are members of the OneWorld Alliance of 11 airlines, which includes Australian carrier Qantas and American Airlines.

Carriers like the US airline United and Air Canada are part of the Star Alliance, while another grouping - Skyteam - includes KLM and Air France and US airline Delta.

KLM and Air France have already gone through the kind of merger that BA and Iberia are involved in.

Like BA and Iberia are doing, KLM and Air France have kept their individual identities but are run as one company.

Such link-ups, code-shares, mergers and alliances were all the rage even before the current economic downturn.

Now, they are more important than ever, as BA's pre-tax interim losses of £292 million announced last week indicated.