On April 7th, British Airlines and Iberia inked a merger deal to become the world’s sixth largest airline in revenue. A day later, United Airlines and US Airways resumed talks that failed in 2000 and 2008. If these two were to merge, they would become the world’s 4th largest airline behind Lufthansa, Air France, and Delta.

These mergers come during a decade of losses for the battered airline industry, which suffered from a spike in oil prices in 2008, and the weakness of the travel industry in 2009. With global economies rebounding, there are hopes that eliminating competition will send air fares higher. When Delta and Northwest merged in 2008, Delta effectively became the nation’s largest airline. This success has partly prompted these talks.

In the past, these deals have been difficult to pull off due to labor contracts. US Airways, while one of the weaker American airlines, has a key hub in Phoenix, which competes directly with Southwest. Southwest was the only large scale airline to turn a profit last year. United, which has a strong presence on the East Coast with hubs in L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, would benefit from the Southwestern exposure.

Although a deal is not expected to go through for weeks, it at all, this merger signals that the world of airline travel is changing.