Iberia is owned by International Airlines Group (IAG), the same company that owns British Airways, Aer Lingus, Vueling, etc. The oneworld airline has today unveiled its “2030 Flight Plan,” as it’s called, which is essentially the company’s vision through the end of the decade. There are some interesting updates here that will interest passengers, so let’s go over what we know.
In this post:
Iberia plans to grow & improve passenger experience
Iberia has outlined how it plans to invest €6 billion in the coming years, in hopes of achieving annual profitability of 13.5-15%. Okay, any sort of prediction of profitability years out seems highly speculative, given how tough the industry is. So let’s focus on the passenger experience changes that the airline is planning.
Here are some of the key takeaways that customers can look forward to in the coming years:
- Iberia plans to significantly grow its long haul fleet, from 45 aircraft to 70 aircraft, in order to position Madrid (MAD) as a bigger long haul hub; this includes taking delivery of more A321XLRs and A350-900s, in addition to A330-900neos (which were recently ordered by IAG)
- In addition to increasing frequencies in existing markets, Iberia plans to launch new routes to Monterrey (MTY), Philadelphia (PHL), and Toronto (YYZ)
- Iberia plans to refresh the cabins of all of its long haul aircraft, so I suspect that means we can expect new business class seats on most A330s and A350s
- Iberia plans to open an additional lounge in Madrid’s Terminal 4, to improve the ground experience for premium passengers
Let’s see how all of these updates play out
I’m happy to see all of these updates from Iberia. It’s great to hear that Iberia is planning a new lounge at its hub, a new route to Philadelphia, and new cabins on long haul aircraft, though there’s not much in the way of details as of now. I’ll of course provide more updates as they become available.
In general, I think it’s smart for IAG to increasingly lean into Iberia for connecting traffic. Of course British Airways is IAG’s “flagship” airline, but Heathrow is slot controlled, and there’s value to routing passengers through lower cost and less restrictive hubs.
While I wish we’d see a bit more effort into growing Aer Lingus, I understand why that hasn’t historically been the priority. At least continuing to grow Iberia, especially across the Atlantic, seems like a no brainer. Iberia is finally getting a good number of new jets, between A350s, A321XLRs, and upcoming A330neos.
So for now we’ll mark this all as “developing,” but there should be a lot more on the way.
Bottom line
Iberia has outlined its plans for the coming years, as part of its “2030 Flight Plan.” In the coming years, Iberia plans to increase its long haul fleet from 45 jets to 70 jets, add at least three new routes, and introduce a new lounge in Madrid. While details are limited as of now, I look forward to learning more as time goes on…
What do you make of Iberia’s plans over the coming years?
The routes announced couldn't be any less exciting. After the really good Brazilian additions, they could have had a go at expanding in West Africa or getting a piece of the action to the French/Dutch Caribbean. Instead, they're wanting to add two routes to destinations with lots and lots of transatlantic service. MTY also already has a direct route to MAD, although they're probably mostly aiming at connecting traffic from there.
Aeromexico averages an 82% LF on MTY-MAD as per the Mexico transportation dept's official stats. Iberia averages a 90% LF overall across its frequencies on MEX-MAD which is indicative of very strong demand - Viva Aerobus and Volaris both have hubs at MTY and codeshare with Iberia while AeroMexico only offers a handful of long-haul intl and US routes at MTY meaning limited feed.
Iberia should be well-placed to outperform and displace Aeromexico given these...
Aeromexico averages an 82% LF on MTY-MAD as per the Mexico transportation dept's official stats. Iberia averages a 90% LF overall across its frequencies on MEX-MAD which is indicative of very strong demand - Viva Aerobus and Volaris both have hubs at MTY and codeshare with Iberia while AeroMexico only offers a handful of long-haul intl and US routes at MTY meaning limited feed.
Iberia should be well-placed to outperform and displace Aeromexico given these factors and much more feed in the 2nd largest market in Mexico and its "industrial capital", so it makes ton of sense.
PHL is to capture more connecting traffic as part of the JV with AA as US-Spain demand grows and the same for YYZ. While they're not sexy routes, they're low risk and very likely to be lucrative and fuel more adventurous growth later on.
Great to hear. Barajas is a far more efficient and enjoyable transit point over Heathrow. Iberia's on board product long haul is alright, but it could be a touch warmer. That said, a recent TATL flight on the A330-200 in Economy was very much alright, decent food (minus the salami sandwich served before landing in Madrid). Flew the airline again a few days later from Madrid to Italy and was equally pleased with the experience.
Add a new route to PHX!
Good to hear because the A330's Business Class cabins look a little dated so it needs a retofit. The A339's they will get its with the higher MTOW 253 t that Airbus just announced.
Iberia took a bit of a setback in this year’s SkyTrax World Rankings …. down five places on last year. Regardless of whatever anyone on the left side of the pond might think of this airline, it still managed a two place higher placing than the nearest U.S. carrier.
https://www.worldairlineawards.com/worlds-top-100-airlines-2025/
T4S remains a pretty awful place to fly into, out of, or through because of its sheer size and the fact the satellite terminal is so far from the main terminal.
I'm not saying Heathrow is better.
MAD's T4S may be far removed from T4 but the transfer is an easy train ride. It's much better than the bus between LHR's T3 and T5, for example.
Awesome! Love Iberia!
They have a bad rep with some, much of which, in my opinion, stems from years ago and also in some cases, due to linguistic or cultural misunderstandings.
Fact is, they're an amazing airline. One of the most on-time airlines in the world, consistently friendly service, especially if you speak Spanish, great hard product, and usually pretty tasty food.
Always room for improvement, but excited to see what the future holds.
recently had a 4+ hr flight on IB Express on the 321, wont make that mistake again, seats dont recline and food and drink only for sale. I mget it on a short flight but not a mid or longhaul.
looking forward to new news.....