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Willie Walsh eyes Indian investment

Willie Walsh eyes Indian investment after BA and Iberia complete The merged British Airways and Iberia would be "very interested" in investing in an Indian airline, BA chief Willie Walsh said Saturday as he announced a groundbreaking code-share deal with India's Kingfisher Airlines. "Without question this is a market for the future," said Mr Walsh, who is set to head the new International Airlines Group company to be formed under the Iberia merger due to be finalized by the end of this year. "The ambition of IAG is to pursue further opportunities for consolidation and I can certainly let you speculate that IAG would be very interested in participating in the Indian market," he told reporters in Mumbai on his second trip to the city in a month. "It's too early for me to say for definite, given the new company has not yet gone into action, that would be early next year," he added. "But the ambition of the new company would be to pursue further consolidation and this is a very important market." India lets international investors own stakes in its airlines, but not foreign carriers. There has been talk of changing the law however, as local carriers including Kingfisher and rival Jet Airways seek funds to expand in one of the world's fastest growing aviation markets. British Airways, which counts India as its second biggest international market after the US, has been working on its relationship with the upscale Kingfisher for some time. The UK flag-carrier sponsored Kingfisher's recent move to join the Oneworld global alliance and on Saturday, Mr Walsh revealed the two airlines had agreed to a code-share deal, BA's 1st with an Indian airline.---Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com