Iberia

History

Early years

Iberia, Compañía Aérea de Transportes, was incorporated on 28 June 1927 with a capital investment of 1.1 million pesetas by financier Horacio Echevarrieta and Deutsche Luft Hansa. Flight operations commenced on 14 December 1927. The Spanish government contracted the company to provide postal transport between Madrid and Barcelona. During Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, Spanish aviation companies were amalgamated and became state-controlled as a general interest public utility, starting early 1928. Consequently, Iberia was merged into CLASSA (Compañía de Líneas Aéreas Subvencionadas S.A.), ceasing independent operations on 29 May 1929. Although the airline had neither a fleet nor commercial operations under its brand, the name 'Iberia' remained registered.

In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Spanish navy captain and director-general of the company Daniel de Araoz y Aréjula received the order from General Alfredo Kindelán to organize an airline for the air transport in nationalist-held territory during the war. Daniel de Araoz y Aréjula traveled to Germany to get support and material for the restoration of the company as an independent airline, thus six Junkers Ju 52 from Deutsche Luft Hansa arrived, which were acquired by Iberia at the end of the conflict, in addition to material to help the operations. As the name "Iberia" was still registered, it was used when operations began in 1937 towards the end of the war. During the conflict Iberia was a purely domestic airline, with headquarters in Salamanca the airline operated flights to cities in the nationalist side, Spanish North Africa, Spanish West Africa and Morocco. After the war, at the end of the 1930s, the airline served the Seville–Larache–Cape Juby–Las Palmas, Barcelona–Zaragoza–Burgos–Salamanca–Seville–Tetuan and La Palma–Barcelona–Vitoria runs using Junkers Ju 52 aircraft. On 1 May 1939, Iberia operated its first regular service to an international destination as an independent civil airline with a Madrid–Lisbon flight.

In 1940, the government gave the monopoly of national air transport to Iberia (this fact changed 6 years later when the government liberalised the national air traffic for the private airlines), This privilege helped the company to start building as an important international airline, which had not been until then. The airline was nationalised on 30 September 1944 and became part of Instituto Nacional de Industria. The policy of the company was to separate itself from the German orbit to which it had been linked in its first years and establish relations with the United States in terms of aircraft purchase and supplies of aeronautical material for the operation. Thus, that year the purchase of seven DC-3 and three DC-4 was finalised, to expand the network in Europe and accomplish the company's first transatlantic flight. This was achieved in 1946, Iberia was the first airline to fly between Europe and South America after World War II, using a Douglas DC-4 to operate flights between Madrid and Buenos Aires. This flight was the first of an expansion of flights between Latin America and Europe through Spain carried out by the company, with destinations such as San Juan de Puerto Rico, Caracas, Ciudad de México and La Habana. The poor diplomatic relations of the Francoist regime delayed the establishment of some destinations until the beginning of the 1950s.

Development since the 1990s

In the 1990s, Iberia followed a policy of buying shares of Latin American flag carriers. It intended to dominate the entire Latin American market and become one of the largest airlines on the worldwide scene.

The investments started in June 1990 with the buying of a 30% stake in Aerolíneas Argentinas. In 1991, Iberia bought a 45% stake in Viasa for $81 million and a 35% stake in Chilean Ladeco. The airline continued making progress in setting up Europe's first international airline frequent-flyer programme in 1991, with the creation of Iberia Plus.

In 1994, the poor results of Aerolineas Argentinas, which presented a positive balance in its commercial exploitation but hid a significant deficit with losses in non-operating activities, led Iberia to increase its ownership participation to 85%. With this increase in participation, the Argentine state renounced its "golden share", allowing Iberia to have full fiscal control of the company. Iberia began a reduction in the size of the company, a liquidation of the national and overseas offices, and the technical sale of its entire fleet composed of 28 aircraft in a "sale and lease back" operation. Argentine sources indicate that the purchase capital of Aerolíneas Argentinas was charged to its financial liability. This, together with the aforementioned sales, generated a big controversy, giving rise to criticism of the Argentine government for the privatisation of the company. The truth is that during the period that Aerolíneas Argentinas was owned by Iberia (1990–1995), the Spanish airline allocated more than 1,200 million dollars to the Argentine flag carrier and kept the airline operating despite the poor results. Meanwhile, the Argentine government refused to invest more capital and expressed its desire to get rid of a large part of its shares. Iberia carried out major reforms in the structure of the company, which by that date was outdated with, among other things, extortionate personnel costs. Some of these changes included the development of a free booking program, the complete computerisation of the management system, the introduction of business class on domestic flights, and the creation of a new hub in Ezeiza International Airport for long range regional flights to Latin American destinations. In 1995, before the process of privatisation of Iberia, Aerolineas Argentinas was transferred to the Spanish government through INI, which would later become SEPI. In 2001, the Argentine flag carrier was sold to the Spanish company Grupo Marsans.

In 2008, the president of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner expropriated the company from Grupo Marsans for the symbolic price of 1 Argentine peso ($0.57) and renationalised the airline. In July 2017, the ICSID ordered Argentina to pay 320 million dollars to Grupo Marsans for having paid a lower price than the real value of the company. On 7 April 2010, the president of the Spanish Court of Auditors presented at the Spanish Parliament the figures of the investment in Aerolíneas Argentinas between 1990 and 2001, which was estimated at €2,100 million.

Corporate affairs

Business trends

The key trends for Iberia are (as of the financial year ending 31 December):

Head office

The company head office is in the MV49 Business Park in Madrid. This facility is in proximity to the intersection of the Autopista de Circunvalación M-30 and Avenida de América. In 2013, the company moved its head office from the former Campos Velázquez, in the Salamanca district of Madrid, to save money.

Ownership

On 3 April 2001, Iberia was privatised and included in the IBEX 35 stock index of the Madrid stock exchange. The core shareholders were: Caja Madrid– 23.45%, British Airways 13.2%, SEPI– 5.20%, El Corte Inglés– 2.90%. British Airways raised its stake in Iberia by purchasing American Airlines' remaining shares, reportedly paying £13m for the small shareholding. This increased BA's total stake in Iberia to around 10% and preserved its two seats on the Iberia board.

In July 2008, British Airways and Iberia announced plans to merge, wherein each airline would retain its original brand. The agreement was confirmed in April 2010, and in July, the European Commission and United States Department of Transportation permitted the merger and the two airlines began to co-ordinate transatlantic routes with American Airlines. On 6 October 2010, the alliance between British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia formally began operations. At the time it was estimated the alliance would generate an estimated £230 million in annual cost-saving for BA, in addition to the £330 million which would be saved by the merger with Iberia. The merger was finalised on 21 January 2011, resulting in the International Airlines Group (IAG), the world's third-largest airline in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest airline group in Europe.

Prior to merging, British Airways owned a 13.5% stake in Iberia, and thus received ownership of 55% of the combined International Airlines Group; Iberia's other shareholders received the remaining 45%.

The merger has been controversial. British Airways operates two funded principal-defined benefit pension schemes in the UK. British Airways admits that one of the most serious financial risks it suffers is the challenging pension schemes' combined deficit. The last actuarial valuation was £3.7 billion, a value even greater than IAG's capitalisation. In addition and according to the "Pensions Act" for the year 2004, should it be necessary, the United Kingdom's Pension Regulator could force Iberia or IAG to give additional financial support to British Airways' retirement pension schemes. In its "Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 December 2011" BA declared that "negative movements in pension asset values and financial returns from these assets may increase the size of the pension deficit".

As of December 2013, the airline had over 18,000 employees.

Subsidiaries and alliances

Iberia has a 9.49% stake in low-cost carrier Vueling which is based near Barcelona, with parent company IAG owning the remaining 90.51%. This was done to ensure that IAG does not have 100% of the shares in Vueling, but that the shares are split between its divisions. Iberia also has a 0.95% share in Royal Air Maroc.

Iberia is allied with American Airlines, Qantas, Avianca and British Airways, and it was allied with Grupo TACA. On 1 September 1999, the company joined the Oneworld alliance.

Iberia formerly owned Aviaco, which operated most domestic routes. It was founded on 18 February 1948 and operated until 1 September 1999. Iberia also owned Binter Canarias, until the Spanish government began the privatisation of the subsidiary. Hesperia Inversiones Aéreas bought the airline from Iberia in July 2002. A second airline using the Binter name, Binter Mediterraneo, was formed as a subsidiary of Iberia in 1988 with routes from Melilla to Málaga, Almeria, Valencia and in its last year, with Madrid. The airline was acquired by Air Nostrum in 1998 and merged into its operations, at that time, the airline had a fleet of CN-235s.

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

In addition, Iberia is an aircraft maintenance company, servicing its fleet and those of another 48 companies, including some leading European airlines. Iberia is a supplier of aircraft handling services at all Spanish airports and two in Equatorial Guinea; its airline clients number more than 200 and has 7300 employees.

Destinations

Joint businesses

Iberia participates in a joint business with Qatar Airways and British Airways which includes the operation of three daily flights between Qatar Airways' Doha hub and Madrid along with up to 10 flights between Doha and London.

Iberia also participates in the Oneworld transatlantic joint venture with American Airlines, British Airways and Finnair.

Codeshare agreements

As of May 2024, Iberia has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

Fleet

Current fleet

As of December 2025, Iberia operates an all-Airbus fleet composed of the following aircraft:

Fleet development

In August 2015, Iberia parent International Airlines Group converted eight Airbus A350-900 and three Airbus A330-200 options into firm orders for Iberia. In June 2018, the airline took the delivery of its first A350.

In June 2017, Iberia ordered 17 Airbus A320neo and 3 Airbus A321neo aircraft with deliveries from 2018. The first A320neo was delivered in May 2018. The first A321neo was received by Iberia Express in June 2020.

At the 2019 Paris Air Show, IAG agreed to purchase 14 Airbus A321XLR aircraft, 8 for delivery to Iberia and 6 to Aer Lingus, with options for a further 14 of the aircraft. The first A321XLR was received by worldwide launch customer Iberia in November 2024.

On 28 July 2023, IAG converted six of the ten remaining options for the Boeing 787 into firm orders for the 787-10 and added six more options for the variant to be allocated to British Airways, and converted one option for the Airbus A350-900 into a firm order to be allocated to Iberia.

On 9 May 2025, IAG ordered up to 76 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, out of which 32 firm orders and 10 options for the Boeing 787–10 will be allocated to British Airways, and 21 firm orders and 13 options for the Airbus A330-900 will be allocated to Iberia, Aer Lingus, and LEVEL. It also revealed the firming of options for 18 additional aircraft, including six Airbus A350-1000 aircraft and six Boeing 777–9 aircraft for British Airways, and six Airbus A350-900 aircraft for Iberia.

Former fleet

Over the years, Iberia operated the following aircraft types:

Aircraft cabins

All aircraft in the fleet are configured in a two-class layout with Business and Economy cabins. Iberia currently markets three distinct business class variations, depending on flight length. In March 2009, Iberia announced that from 2009 to 2011, it would renovate its economy class on all its planes as well as design a new business class for its long-haul planes. Iberia was one of the last remaining major airlines to equip all of its intercontinental routes with personal entertainment screens. As of 2016, the Airbus A330-200 and −300, and A340-600 fleets are equipped with personal IFE. In-flight catering is provided by Do & Co.

Business Class

Business Class is available on Spanish domestic and inter-European flights. Seats are the same as in the economy cabin but with the middle (B and E) seats blocked off. Business Class tickets also include improved ground service (priority check-in, security, boarding, baggage handling, and lounge access).

Business Plus

Business Plus is offered on long-haul flights to the Americas and Southern Africa. Business Plus offers lie-flat seating and international business-class amenities.

Economy

Iberia has moved more to an American, or "a-la-carte" model for domestic and European flights, offering a buy on board service called "Tu Menú" in economy for meals, snacks and beverages. Mid-haul flights toDakar, Moscow, and Tel Aviv as well as long-haul intercontinental flights are fully catered in Economy except alcohol.

Accidents and incidents

As of January 2016, a total of 37 aircraft operated by or for Iberia have been written off in accidents and shoot-downs since 1939. Several Iberia aircraft have also been hijacked. These incidents and accidents include the following:

On 19 April 1928, a Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland I with registration D-1219 made a hard landing near Ventas de Muniesa, 12 km north of Muniesa, Teruel which resulted in serious damage to the aircraft and caused injuries to the 11 occupants, one of them severely and later died. According to witnesses, there were foggy conditions in the area and the plane had given several low passes around the place before landing. The aircraft was flying from Barcelona to Madrid.

During 1939, Iberia lost two trimotor Junkers Ju 52s. On 16 March, one crashed due to bad weather in Cabezavellosa on the regular flight from Salamanca to Seville. On 18 December, another Ju 52 crashed near Gibraltar on its flight from Tetuán to Seville. Rumors, initiated by the German secret service, suggested at the time that the aircraft was shot down from the Rock of Gibraltar or from an English warship. This was not deemed likely. Three crew and seven passengers were killed.

On 4 October 1940, a Douglas DC-1 force landed in Málaga, Spain. All passengers and crew survived, but the aircraft was destroyed.

On 23 December 1948, a Douglas DC-3 crashed in foggy and heavy rain conditions in risk of Sierra de Pandols near Bot killing all 27 occupants. After the collision, the fuselage disintegrated and the plane burst into flames following the resulting explosion. The plane fell into Puig Cabal's valley. The aircraft was found two and a half hours later.

On 28 October 1957, an engine fire caused a Douglas DC-3 to crash near Getafe killing all 21 occupants.

On 29 April 1959, a Douglas DC-3 crashed onto the Sierra de Valdemeca, Cuenca after being diverted due to bad weather with the loss of all 28 occupants.