Iberia fires British Airways from its ground handling role at Heathrow

Almost all HfP readers will know that British Airways is part of a Spanish business called IAG (International Consolidated Airlines Group) and that BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL are sister companies.

IAG’s management has always insisted that each individual airline should be run separately, with no concern for the others. The parent company only gets involved when, for example, it comes to ordering new aircraft where bulk deals can be negotiated and aircraft shunted between carriers.

If you needed proof of this independence, Iberia has just fired British Airways from its role as ground handler at Heathrow Terminal 5. Iberia believes that all of its ground operations can be obtained more cheaply from a third party versus what it pays its sister company.

Those British Airways employees who currently spend the majority of their time servicing Iberia have been told that they can either stay with BA – redundancies are unlikely given the desperate staff shortage at Heathrow – or transfer across to the new handling company. The change is expected to happen in early July.

It isn’t clear if Iberia will move from Terminal 5 as part of this change, or if an external handling company will be fitted in alongside BA at T5. American Airlines already uses its own staff for its Terminal 5 flights, I believe.

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As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 13th June, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is doubled to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – and you get £200 to spend at Amex Travel too! Apply here.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

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EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.