Iberia Express, the new short and medium haul airline being launched by IAG’s Iberia, will, like Iberia itself, be part of oneworld, the leading quality airline alliance, when it launches operations this weekend.
Its addition to oneworld, as an affiliate, was confirmed at meeting of the alliance’s Board today.
Iberia Express, which is 100 per cent owned by Iberia, will begin commercial service on Sunday, operating short and medium haul flights connecting to and from mainline Iberia’s longhaul network at their shared Madrid hub.
It will offer two classes on all flights – Business and Economy – and deliver the full range of oneworld services and benefits.
Iberia Express begins operations with four Airbus A320s, building to 13 by the end of this year.
The airline expects to details its initial destinations and schedule soon.
All Iberia Express flights will operate with Iberia’s IB prefix – besides its own I2 designator – under a code-sharing agreement with its mainline partner, offering oneworld member airlines and their customers complete access to its network.
Tickets will be sold through Iberia’s regular Iberia.com website, through its own iberiaexpress.com website and from travel agents.
Iberia joined oneworld as a full member in 1999, with Iberia Regional Air Nostrum joining as an affiliate member at the same time.
About oneworld
oneworld aims to be the airline alliance of choice for the world’s frequent international travellers. It brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business – airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines, and around 20 affiliates including Austria’s NIKI, American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru. Malaysia Airlines is on track to join later in 2012, with India’s Kingfisher Airlines also a member elect. Malev Hungarian Airlines and Mexicana are inactive members of the alliance.
Between them, oneworld’s active member airlines:
- Serve some 800 airports in 150 countries, with more than 8,750 daily departures.
- Offer more than 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
- Carry almost a million passengers a day on a combined fleet of nearly 2,500 aircraft.
- Generate some US$ 100 billion annual revenues in total.
oneworld enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges. oneworld also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors.
oneworld is current holder of more international awards for airline alliances than any of its competitors – named the Best Airline Alliance by Global Traveler in its GT Tested Reader Survey 2011 Awards for the second year running, the World’s Leading Airline Alliance in the 2011 World Travel Awards, for the ninth consecutive year, and the Best Airline Alliance 2011 in Australian Business Traveller’s debut awards.