Qantas, BA refute merger talks

09 June 2009

The chief executives of Qantas, the Australia's biggest airline, and British Airways, on Monday reiterated that there was no chance of resurrecting the failed merger between the both airlines.

Qantas Airways chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline is not looking at any specific mergers at the moment.

''There are no plans to restart merger talks with British Airways after the talks fell apart earlier this year,'' he said on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association general meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh also said the deal is now dead.

"It was a very interesting proposal to look at, at the time, but there's no prospect I see of that being reopened," he said.

In December 2008, the airlines had entered in to a $8-billion merger talks, but scrapped it within weeks as the two companies could not converge on the size of their stakes in the combined group that would have resulted from the merger. Reports said the talks fell through on account of Qantas' insistence for a 55-per cent stake in the new company, to which BA would not agree. (See: Dispute on stake ownership led to collpse of BA-Qantas merger talks).