Profile
Iberia was established on June 28, 1927 and began operating six months later. On December 14 King Alfonso XIII inaugurated the Madrid-Barcelona flight, which took off from Carabanchel.
Rohrbach-Roland aeroplanes were used.
Since then, more than 600 million people have travelled with Iberia, helping to make it one of the five largest European airlines in the routes between Spain and Europe and Europe and Latin America.
Iberia has been a pioneer in products and services. It was the first company (in 1946) to fly between Europe and South America. In 1974 it inaugurated the air bridge service between Madrid and Barcelona, a unique service in Europe. Serviberia, the precursor of call centres, and the Chaquetas Rojas service (which provides customer attention and resolves problems) were also launched that year.
In 1991 Iberia launched Iberia Plus, the first international customer affinity programme in Europe, and in 1996 it created Iberia.com.
2001 was a turning point for Iberia. Its listing was the culmination of its privatisation and it returned to the private sector, although for most of its life it has been state-owned.
Iberia flies to 101 places in 39 countries.Under a sharing agreement with other companies it flies to another 84 places in 31 countries. It has a fleet of close to 215 jets and makes around 1,000 flights a day.
In 2005 it transported 32.4 millioon passangers and more than 234,000 tonnes of cargo.
Iberia is also one of the world's most qualified companies in aeronautical maintenance, an activity carried out on its own fleet and those of 100 other companies including some of the main ones in Europe. Iberia is the largest handler in Spain (assistance to aeroplanes and passengers).
Iberia is also the founder and owner of 11.6% of Amadeus, the world's leading online booking service. It is also involved in the express transport bussiness with Cacesa.
The alliance with American Airlines and with British Airways, through OneWorld, makes Iberia one of the big airlines competing in a global market.