Just one day after announcing its proposed 'merger' with British Airways, Spanish airline Iberia has reported a nine-month loss of E.181.9m ($270.4m) compared with a E.51.1m ($75.9m) profit for the same period a year ago,

pointing to a -21.9% fall in air traffic revenues.

The airline blamed the economic crisis, as it also reported a -5.1% decline in the number of passengers carried in October – although its load factor improved to 80.6%.

Iberia's third-quarter results also showed a net consolidated loss of E.16m ($23.7m) compared with the E.30.4m ($45.1m) profit made in the same quarter last year.

However, the airline says that its performance was substantially better than that of the first half of the year, when losses amounted to E.165m ($245.3m).