Back on December 2, British Airways and Qantas were holding talks about a possible merger. Now, the talks have broken off because the carriers couldn’t agree on who would control the new company.
Bloomberg is reporting that British Airways CEO Willie Walsh and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce couldn’t agree on the ownership split.
In a statement, British Airways said that “talks had stumbled over ‘key terms’ and that it and Qantas will continue to cooperate on flights between Australia and the U.K. and as members of the Oneworld alliance.”
Qantas confirmed the end of negotiations and Joyce said that he “would consider deals with Asian carriers.”
BA spokesman Tony Cane said that talks with Iberia over a merger will continue, although talks with that airline have stumbled previously because of the pension deficits and leadership, the same issues that ended the talks with Qantas.
A British Airways consolidation with another airline would allow it to keep pace with Air France-KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, ranked number one and two in Europe. Earlier, Lufthansa agreed to buy stakes in Austrian Airlines AG, Brussels Airlines and BMI.
Cane said that “Consolidation is the right thing for the airline industry…Our strategy is to keep talking to other airlines.”
