Why are BA and Iberia merging?

A familiar name from the London stock market will be missing from the FTSE share index from Friday. On Thursday evening, the last ever shares for British Airways closed down 5p at £2.80.

BA's long awaited merger with its Spanish rival Iberia formally takes place on Friday and it will come back to the stock market on Monday as a new listed company with the name of International Airlines Group, or IAG.

Jamie Bowden is a former BA executive and shareholder and he told BBC News why the merger was taking place.