International Airlines Group

International Airlines Group is the kind of airline holding company that matters to people booking flights, managing route networks and watching airline alliances, not to anyone looking for a single plane in a livery. By our assessment, its strength is scale across major carriers, especially British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and Level, which gives it reach across long-haul and short-haul travel. The downside is that an airline group lives with fuel prices, strikes, delays and thin margins, so it can never look tidy for long. In practice, IAG is less about romance and more about slots, hubs and keeping a wide route map working. It sits among the big European airline groups rather than the low-cost pure plays, and its mix of full-service and budget brands is part of the point. What it offers is network breadth, not a single uniform flying experience, and that is exactly where its value lies.