Iberia Airlines

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Iberia Airlines

IATA IB	ICAO IBE	Callsign IBERIA
Founded		1927
Hubs		Barajas Int'l Airport
Focus cities / secondary hubs		Barcelona International Airport Sevilla Airport Los Rodeos Airport Alicante Airport
Frequent flyer program		Iberia Plus
Member lounge		Sala VIP
Alliance		Oneworld, Avianca
Fleet size		155
Destinations		105
Parent company		Iberia Group
Headquarters		Madrid, Spain
Key people		Fernando Conte (CEO)
Website: http://www.iberia.com

Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A. (Iberia Airlines of Spain in English), usually shortened to Iberia, is the largest airline of Spain, based in Madrid. It operates an extensive international network of services. Its main bases are Madrid Barajas and Barcelona airports.

On April 3, 2001, Iberia was privatized and included in the IBEX-35 stock index of the Madrid stock exchange. The core shareholders are: Caja Madrid – 10%, British Airways and American Airlines Holdings – 9.68%, BBVA – 7%, Logista – 6.49%, El Corte Inglés – 2.90%.

In 2005 the airline reported a net profit of €395 million —its 10^th consecutive year of profits.

Iberia and Iberia Regional (Air Nostrum) transported 32,364,263 passengers in 2005.

Iberia will have an all Airbus fleet by 2008, after retiring all of its remaining Boeing and McDonnell Douglas aircraft. Iberia's livery is a Eurowhite scheme, composed of primarily white with orange and yellow accents.

Iberia Airlines makes extensive use of e-tickets and encourages customers to print the boarding pass prior to their flight. Travellers with only carry-on baggage can go directly to the boarding gate. e-tickets sales accounted for 93% of all Iberia tickets sold in January 2006. In Spain identification of the traveller by means of an Identity document or Passport is mandatory for all airlines on all routes, including Spanish domestic ones.

The Iberia Group encompasses the Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum franchise. In addition to transporting passengers and freight, Iberia carries out many related activities, such as aircraft maintenance, handling in airports, IT systems, in-flight catering, and holiday packages.

Iberia Group airlines fly to 97 destinations in 40 countries. Via code-sharing arrangements with other companies, it offers flights to another 60 destinations in 25 countries. With a fleet of almost 200 aircraft, it makes about 1,000 flights each day. In 2002, Iberia carried 28 million passengers and 210,000 tons of freight.

In addition, Iberia is a qualified aircraft maintenance company, servicing its own fleet and those of another 48 companies, including some leading European airlines. Iberia is the leading supplier of aircraft handling services at all Spanish airports, its airline clients number more than 200.

Iberia was a founding partner in the computerized air ticket reservation system, Amadeus, with an 18.28% stake - this was sold in 2005. Iberia is also active as a tour operator through its Viva Tours and Tiempo Libre units, and with Cacesa it supplies express parcel shipment services.

Iberia is allied with American Airlines and British Airways, and on 1 September 1999, joined the Oneworld alliance. British Airways owns 9% of its share capital.

In 2005, Iberia introduced its new Business Plus Class, on its Airbus A340 aircraft.

On February 5, 2006 the new Terminal 4 at Madrid Barajas was awarded to Iberia and the Oneworld alliance members. This provided much-needed expansion capabilities for Iberia. Iberia alone is responsible for around 60% of Madrid Barajas traffic. In 2005 Iberia and its regional branch Air Nostrum transported 21,619,041 passengers to/from Madrid Barajas alone.

Iberia plans to set-up a low-cost carrier called Clickair in November 2006. This will be based in Barcelona and has been scheduled initially to 10 destinations (2 in Spain and 8 in Europe).

Iberia Airbus A320

Terminal 4 at Madrid Barajas Airport

1 History
2 Incidents and accidents
3 Destinations
4 Fleet
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

Main article: History of Iberia Airlines

Iberia, Compañía Aérea de Transportes was incorporated on June 28, 1927 with an initial capital investment by the financier Horacio Echeberrieta and Deutsche Luft Hansa of 1.1 million pesetas. Flight operations started on 14 December 1927 and within a year, the company was sponsored by the Spanish government to provide postal transport between Madrid and Barcelona. During the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, the aviation companies in Spain were combined and become state-controlled as a general interest public utility. This came into effect in early 1928. As a consequence, Iberia was merged into Compañía de Líneas Aéreas Subvencionadas S.A. (C.L.A.S.S.A.) and ceased activities on May 29, 1929. The name "Iberia" continued to be registered by Director-General Daniel de Araoz y Aréjula. As the name "Iberia" was still registered, it was used when operations began in nationalist-held territory towards the end of Spanish Civil War. When the company was fully reinitiated following civil war it became a purely domestic airline.

The airline was nationalised on 30 September 1944. In 1946, it became the first airline to fly between Europe and South America. By the Pact of Madrid in 1953, visa requirements were eliminated for US visitors to Spain. This stimulated the commencement of transatlantic flights between Spain and United States the following year. In addition, the amendments made in Montreal to the Convention on International Civil Aviation on June 14, 1954 was very liberal to Spain, allowing impetus for mass tourism using charter planes.

MD-88 of Iberia

By the time of the 50th anniversary in 1977, the airline carried over 10 million passengers in a year for the first time. In the late 1980s/early 1990s, Iberia also began to build up significant interests in other Spanish airlines - Aviaco, Viva Air, Binter Canarias and Binter Mediterraneo and Latin American airlines - Aerolíneas Argentinas, Viasa and Ladeco.

During 2001 Iberia was privatization and shares were listed on stock exchanges. By 2002, when Iberia celebrated its 75^th anniversary, nearly 500 million people had flown with Iberia Airlines.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

Main article: History of Iberia Airlines

On July 28, 2006, ground staff at the El Prat airport went on an unannounced strike and occupied the runway. ^[1] The illegal strike, which coincided with one of the busiest weekends of the summer season, was attributed to the labor conflicts stemming from Iberia having lost its contract to provide ground services to a rival company. The airport was closed for the day and caused thousands of passenger delays. Some stranded passengers had to find their baggage and it took three days to remove the backlog of delays. In September 2006, the Spanish parliament agreed to certain compensatory payments to travellers who were affected. ^[2]

[edit] Destinations

Main article: Iberia destinations

[edit] Fleet

The Iberia fleet consists of the following aircraft as of November 2006 [1]:

**Iberia Airlines Fleet**
Aircraft	Number	Seats	Notes
Airbus A319-100	11	120-141	Short-Medium Haul Routes
Airbus A320-200	58	136-171	Short-Medium Haul Routes
Airbus A321-200	18	172-200	Short-Medium Haul Routes
Airbus A340-300	18	260	Long Haul Routes
Airbus A340-600	13	352	Long Haul Routes
Boeing 757-200	7	183-200	Short-Medium Haul Routes Exit From Service: 2008
McDonnell Douglas MD-87	18	97-116	Short-Medium Haul Routes Exit From Service: 2008
McDonnell Douglas MD-88	12	137-150	Short-Medium Haul Routes Exit From Service: 2008

In November 2006, the average age of the Iberia fleet was 8.1 years.
Iberia Regional also has ATR-72, Dash-8 and Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (200 & 900) aircraft, operated by regional partner Air Nostrum.