Recently posting its performance for the first half, Iberia has announced a loss of around EUR32.2 million euro million during the first half from a earlier profit record of EUR69 million. The airline noted that the adverse performance was due to the rise of fuel prices and the fall in demand. When the fuel bill of the carrier soared up to 38 percent to EUR732 million, the Spanish carrier however said that the unit costs excluding fuel came down by 6.2 percent.

Besides this, the firm did not give any details on how much fuel hedging has been made by the company so far. The company gave no details on its level of fuel hedging. However, earlier the recent update by the company observed that the company could so far hedge fuel for about 48 percent of its fuel needs for the year 2008 at the price of USD$83 a barrel.

Though the airline could successfully retain the sales of EUR2.67 billion, which was totally unmoved from a year ago, the net profit of EUR20.7 million was not more than a quarter of last year's result. According to the statement made by Chairman Fernando Conte, it appears that Iberia has plans to buy more shares of the merger partner during the forthcoming months.

Discussing the stand of the airline in this regard, Conte noted, "Iberia intends over the coming months to acquire additional British Airways shares and to close the equivalent part of the derivatives long position."