British Airways has boasted a stock market listing for almost a quarter of a century, but there'll be a different, rather dull, name peering out of the pink pages from Monday when the airline's merger with Iberia becomes real.

The carrier's £5.7bn merger with Spain's Iberia completes today, almost 24 years after it was privatised by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government.

Shares in the new holding company, International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), will begin trading on Monday and rank as the third-largest airline in the world.

A less than catchy name it might be, but the plan is exciting. Walsh wants to use the vehicle to keep growing the business through high profile acquisitions. A dozen targets have already been identified, among them thought to be Brazilian carrier GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes.

BA and Iberia will continue to fly under their own liveries and BA boss Willie Walsh will head the enlarged business, which targets €400m of cost savings in its fifth year.

Some shareholders will no doubt shed a tear. It's been an eventful few decades for BA if not a particularly profitable one. Chief executives have come and gone. There's been success, failure, scandal and strikes. Rarely a dull moment.

It was all cheers in February 1987 as investors scrambled for shares in Britain's flag carrier at a tempting 125p each. The privatisation was 11 times oversubscribed, making BA staff - each received 76 free shares - and lucky punters, a quick profit.

Within 10 years they'd soared to 770p, turning £95 into £585 for employees. Then came 9/11 and its disastrous impact on the global travel industry. During 2003, BA shares were changing hands for little more than 50p. A return to profit has got then trading back up near 300p, a two-year high.

But that's not the half of it. Here's a selection of big moments from the past 24 years.

In 1993, the company was found guilty of conducting a "dirty tricks" campaign against Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic that cost BA £610,000 plus another £3m in legal costs. But, more importantly, it led to the departure of chairman Lord King, the man who brought BA to the stock market, six months later.

There was further outrage in 1997 when the company decided to ditch the traditional British colours that adorned its tail fin in favour of ethnic logos. That didn't go down well with confused air traffic controllers or Margaret Thatcher who famously placed a white handkerchief over the tail of a model BA plane.

Just two years after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York, an Air France Concorde jet crashed, bringing 27 years of supersonic flight to an end.

Former Aer Lingus pilot Willie Walsh took the helm in 2005 and the next few years went pretty well. But in 2008, the group hit the headlines for the wrong reasons again when British Airways Flight 38 crash landed short of the runway, damaging the landing gear and engines.

Strikes, snow and volcanic ash have all had an impact over the past few years. More walkouts are expected until BA sorts out its row with cabin crew. Industrial action has already cost the business £150m.

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