Iberia ready to reactivate 90% of South American routes
This summer Iberia plans to reactivate the 90% on all its Latin American routes. The Spanish airline will return [...]
This summer Iberia plans to reactivate the 90% on all its Latin American routes. The Spanish airline will return to 17 cities, leaving only two of its pre-pandemic destinations closed. Before the advent of Coronavirus, Iberia reached 19 cities in 14 countries in Latin America and Puerto Rico. It was in effect the largest European operator in the entire territory and used Madrid and Barcelona as hubs to connect the two continents. After temporarily closing many of its routes, it is slowly reactivating connections.
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According to Spanish sources, Iberia will initially reactivate The routes to Guayaquil (Ecuador), San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). and between July and September plans to offer up to 64,136 weekly seats between Spain and Latin America. But what are the routes and flights planned on a per-state basis? Let's try to clarify.
Iberia's routes to Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.
Ten flights a week are scheduled at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires. Iberia will use both an Airbus A330-200 and an A350-900, offering up to 6,600 weekly seats. Routes to Brazil are planned both to Sao Paulo Guarulhos International than at Galeao International in Rio de Janeiro.
For the first destination, a daily flight aboard the Airbus A330-300 is planned. If, on the other hand, one wants to land in Rio, the A330-200 will be used with four weekly flights. The route to Rio de Janeiro will resume on July 1.
For those heading to Chile, they will be able to choose from seven flights per week departing from Madrid and Barcelona with an offer of 4,872 weekly seats. However, this is currently a limited route due to the closure of the border with the South American country. In contrast, there are five weekly flights offered to Uruguay with Iberia deploying the IATA Travel Pass.
Flights to Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Santo Domingo and Ecuador.
Iberia has arranged for seven flights a week to Bogotá in Colombia but only from Madrid, further raising the number of possibilities offered as of May 30. For the Costa Rica are scheduled five flights a week from Madrid to San Jose, instead for Cuba we depart from the Spanish capital to reach Havana with two flights every seven days. From June 1 there will be four, while June 29 there will be one flight per day.
Also from Madrid, Iberia is banking heavily on the Dominican Republic. Specifically for summer 2021, it has planned ten weekly flights to Santo Domingo International Airport to offer at least 5,816 seats every seven days. It will also resume the Madrid-Guayaquil flight to Ecuador at least three times a week. The route to Quito, on the other hand, will increase to five flights a week to take advantage of the summer period.
Both El Salvador and Guatemala will be reachable with four weekly flights, and it is from the latter destination that one can reach Mexico City. Starting June 4, Iberia will offer ten weekly flights with two daily frequencies on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Concluding Iberia's Latin America offerings: a daily flight to Lima in Peru, five weekly flights to Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, and three flights a week to Puerto Rico, the latter only starting June 1, when the Madrid-San Juan route will also return.
Routes still not restored
There are at least two important routes that have not yet been restored that Iberia hopes to have available by summer 2021. It is still impossible to get to Medellin in Colombia and Caracas in Venezuela. In particular, the latter is closed to every country in the world except Bolivia, Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Russia, and Turkey.