It was only last year when British Airways and Iberia were merged to form International Airlines Group which is keeping a vigilant eye on the instability in the Middle East and issues of rising fuel prices jeopardizing the business.

There was some rise in demand of premium flying recently because of which its revenue went up by 10% to €14.79bn in 2010, bringing in the profit of €84m whereas it faced the loss of €1.16bn last year.

Thomson Reuters believed that there was not even a single meaningful analyst consensus forecast is available about this issue.

After merging up in January, figures state that BA and Iberia have operated as a combined group in the year to the end of December. Though there has been a major improvement in the profit figures but analysts fear that rising oil prices could hamper the industry’s recovery.

A warning statement was issued by The International Air Transport Association saying that airline profitability remained weak and under pressure from the rising price of oil even as more people started to travel.

IAG said in a statement on Friday, “We are monitoring the impact of the current Middle East instability on fuel prices and have the flexibility to change our capacity plans if necessary”.