Iberia and Air Europa hope to go ahead with the merger within a month

IAG's CEO, Luis Gallego, said yesterday in the statement: "It is very disappointing that we have had to terminate the current agreement, but the decision makes sense given the current market conditions, the deep crisis resulting from COVID-19 and also given our desire to maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation”.

The airline owned by the Hidalgo family, with the 75 million it will receive from IAG, can operate without problems during the coming months and prepare its entire summer schedule, with the aim of optimizing resources, structuring its fleet and maintaining employment, which is the objective of Globalia's chairman, Juan José Hidalgo. The scenarios that are open for Air Europa are very wide and all this will depend on the strategy adopted by the central government in the current situation. Financial sources point out that the new agreement reached with IAG contemplates that it will only buy a maximum of 49 % of Air Europa, as opposed to the 100 % it was initially going to acquire. The remaining 51% would remain in the hands of the State and the Hidalgo family.