MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish airline Vueling (>> Vueling Airlines SA) will be bigger than loss-making flag carrier Iberia within three to five years, International Airlines Group (>> International Consolidated Airlines Grp) Chief Executive Willie Walsh was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

International Airlines Group, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, took control of the latter's low cost domestic competitor Vueling in April. It is in the process of laying off thousands of workers at Iberia, which has suffered because of a recession in Spain that has left 27 percent of the workforce out of work.

"In short and medium-haul routes it will definitely be in five years and possibly even before, in three years," newspaper Expansion quoted Walsh as saying.

According to figures from Spain's airport authority Aena, Vueling transported 5.7 million passengers in the first fourth months of the year, while Iberia and Iberia Express combined carried 5.6 million.

(Reporting by Clare Kane; editing by Patrick Graham)