DELLAS

Good news from Iberia / IAG this morning. Link here :


http://grupo.iberia.es/portal/site/W...D#.Vbsw-fkepBg

They are looking at NRT YYZ JNB DOH and some others.

New aircraft confirmed into firm orders :

5 A330-200 and 8 A350-900 ( cant wait to see those IB 350's ) ^

LupineChemist

Great news. It's starting to be a very exciting time to be in Spain in General.

I was hoping for HKG to be a hopping off point for a lot of Asia using CX and Dragonair for connections. NRT could work as a non-stop to NRT would still be better than a change to HND as well as having JAL's network to jump off with.

JNB would be a real possibility especially as there are a lot of Spanish businesses growing there. Also having Comair's network for connections keeps things within IAG.

SJU would make a lot of European mileage runners very, very happy. I don't know how it is for connections, but it could be a nice way to connect into the US as well by going domestic from there.

DOH seems iffy to me just because it would rely on QR's network and why not just fly QR the whole way as you still get Avios and Puntos Élite. Either way, it's great way to get to a lot of the ME/India/E. Africa.

YYZ also seem questionable. AC can only make it work in summer and there is no AA connection network on the other side.

The rest just seem like further expansion into the Latin America/Europe market to try and get even more market share.

Overall very

SimonB77

Not really a great way to connect to the USA. First off, it's not a short distance to the USA mainland from SJU. In addition the flight selection to the states is, for the most part, limited to major eastern cities. So unless you are chasing miles, it would make no sense to make such a huge detour. When you can fly directly from MAD/BCN in the first place.

However, SJU makes total sense as a gateway to the Caribbean. As many of the regional airlines service the islands in addition to some of the main carriers.

Hannibal Lecter

Another 5 A330-200, so 13 in total

http://www.airbus.com/presscentre/pr...o-firm-orders/

BlueEgg

Prior to joining IAG, Iberia used to fly non-stop from MAD to JNB, and this for years and years. We would definitely greatly welcome this route to be re-established. However, we shall have to wait and see.

craigthemif

Lots of routes that IB had previously tried and dropped...

IIRC SJU was an add-on to Santo Domingo. We had to deplane there for a couple of hours en route to MAD. Hopefully it returns as a proper direct flight. I suspect most Europeans have latched on to ex-DUB and ex-CPH options for their Tier Point runs, rather than making their own way to SJU to TP run to HNL from there...

DOH would be absolute madness unless there is a massive codeshare deal being done to access the QR network.

AA didn't find a market for MIA-ASU which IIRC was a 757 or something similarly small. Different market, but hardly promising. That said, my Paraguayan friends are always complaining about the ridiculous fares when connecting via EZE or GRU to Europe, so maybe higher fares can compensate for lower loads.

Hannibal Lecter

Norwegian is launching San Juan from Gatwick, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen.
http://caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news/...co-109010.html

They are also launching flights between Madrid and the Canaries, from October IB has dropped the price to Las Palmas to €78 return
no doubt related
http://airlineroute.net/2015/07/10/d8-spain-w15/

LupineChemist

UX makes MAD-SJU work so maybe IB could to. They seem to be able to get other low cost Caribbean routes like SDQ and HAV to work. Time will tell though.

Agreed on DOH, though I still don't get why I would fly IB over QR in the first place, even with codeshares everywhere. That said, Spanish business has a lot of interests in the Middle East so getting a foothold there would be nice, but it still seems complicated to me.

I would think ASU would better work with JJ codeshares to help lower the price now that they are Oneworld.

JNB seems like a good bet also for Latin America to S. Africa traffic as there's an SA GRU-JNB flight but that's the only direct link between the two.

craigthemif

I don't know what plane QR fly to MAD, but I would definitely fly IB J over the angled-flat J offered by QR on the A330. Problem is there's no reason to go to DOH other than for business and that doesn't fill the back of the plane.

Interesting about JNB. I would rather see a LAN-TAM flight across the South Atlantic though. Loads of times I've thought about combining a South Africa and South America trip, but can't find a decent mileage option for that SAA flight...

ian001

IAG has just confirmed it is to order 8 A350 and 3 (rather than 5 as mooted) A330 aircraft for Iberia.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/intl-co...%20Grp%20Alert

BlueEgg

QR has been flying 777 to MAD and shortly this will change to the Dreamliner. Both have flat beds and unlike IB, tiptop service.

TPJ

Really? They flew MAD-SVO-NRT in late 80's/early 90's and this route was always losing money (and that was long before ME3 started dominating Far East traffic).

craigthemif

I agree that NRT is unlikely for point-to-point, but IAG might think there's a bit of a market for Asia to South America connections, since Singapore and the ME3 (+ TK) only cover the major cities like GRU, whereas connecting via the US is quite a pain for non-Americans (and the best route network is via MIA which is too far for direct Asian connections).

ian001

If IB does return to Tokyo, it's a safe assumption the route would be part of the AY/BA/JL joint-venture and benefit from codesharing and local selling & distribution by JL.

LupineChemist

Well, I was wondering why they wouldn't go to HKG to open a route to Asia, but now that CX has announced their MAD route, that answers that question.

UX has also announced service to ASU so I would think it's best to let them be a guinea pig for the time being. I would think the best bets now are YYZ, SJU, JNB, or (my personal hope) NRT