Iberia continues to reopen more flights to Latin America after the pandemic crisis | ECONOMY

The Spanish airline Iberia maintains its bet for Latin America as a preferential destination for its operations, a relationship that is now 75 years old and that has taken on new momentum after the pandemic crisis, according to the company.

“For us, Latin America is absolutely the heart of our strategy, we have been flying for 75 years, since 1946, and little by little we have been adding more flights; we are absolutely focused on Latin America, on having the more capacity, the better ”, said the commercial director, Network Development and Alliances of Iberia, María Jesús López Solás.

The executive, who participated in Bogotá in the annual conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), which concluded this Tuesday, stressed that the region is fundamental for the Spanish company.

“It has always been in our DNA, it is part of what Iberia is to fly to Latin America, it is the heart of our strategy and we want to bet on Latin America,” he stressed.

Connections on three continents

He also highlighted that Iberia, through its “hub” in Madrid, connects “Latin America with the rest of the world” since there are only “more than 90 destinations” in Europe, as well as others in Asia.

“For this we have some of our own flights and we also operate with Asian ‘partners’, therefore, in some way we can be that connecting bridge between Latin America and Europe and Asia,” he said.

According to López Solás, the airline flies to about 20 destinations in Latin America, some of which will be resumed in the coming months, taking advantage of the reopening of operations in most countries after the closure of airspaces caused by the pandemic in 2020, to which are added six cities that it reaches in the United States.

An example of this reactivation is the announcement made on Monday by Iberia that it will increase its flights to Bogotá starting in November and in December it will resume its route to Cali, with which it will recover its operating levels in Colombia before the end of the year. before the pandemic.

The frequencies from Madrid to Bogotá, which are seven a week, will rise to ten next month, while the direct route to Cali, the third largest city in the country, will resume with three flights a week.

“Currently we connect Europe with 13 destinations within Colombia thanks to the alliance we have with Avianca and the one we have with Latam Airlines,” he said about the codeshare operations that allow Iberia to offer connections to Armenia, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Leticia, Medellín, Montería, Pereira, San Andrés, Santa Marta and Yopal.

In the same way, “we connect other cities in the region, North and Central America thanks to these alliances,” he added.

Recovering markets

López Solás explained that operations in Latin America will be expanded to the extent that the countries of the region facilitate the movement of people now that the pandemic seems to have subsided.

“The truth is that everything is highly conditioned by the level of restriction; As the restrictions are being lifted in the different countries, we see that there is a demand from people who want to fly again, to live again, ”he said.

In this sense, he added that in those countries that have been more open and have allowed people vaccinated or with a negative test to visit them, the airline can bet “much faster for the recovery of (operational) capacity.”

López Solás affirmed that in Iberia they are “cautiously optimistic” with the future of the aeronautical sector “because we see that the recovery is going relatively well” after a chaotic year such as 2020.

“When restrictions are eliminated between countries and also when procedures, (health) protocols are more homogeneous and we do not make customers dizzy but we always ask for the same documentation between different countries, that demand that was latent wants to fly again ”, It affirms on a unanimous claim of the airlines.

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