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Iberia

Iberia, Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A. Operadora, Sociedad Unipersonal, trading as IBERIA, is the flag carrier and one of the largest airlines of Spain. Based in Madrid, it operates an international network of services from its main bases of Madrid-Barajas Airport and Barcelona El Prat Airport.

Iberia, with Iberia Regional (operated by an independent carrier Air Nostrum), is a part of Iberia Group. In addition to transporting passengers and freight, Iberia Group carries out related activities, such as aircraft maintenance, handling in airports, IT systems and in-flight catering. Iberia Group airlines fly to over 102 destinations in 39 countries. Via code-sharing arrangements with other companies, it offers flights to another 90 destinations.

On 8 April 2010, it was confirmed that British Airways and Iberia had signed an agreement to merge, making the combined operation the third largest commercial airline in the world by revenue. Shareholders of both carriers approved the deal on 29 November 2010. The newly merged company, known as International Airlines Group IAG, was established in January 2011, although both airlines will continue to operate under their current brands.

In November 2012 Iberia is planning to reduce the number of employees by 4,500 and its fleet by five long-haul and 20 short-haul aircraft, in a "fight for survival", as IAG's chief executive officer said.

History

Iberia, Compañía Aérea de Transportes was incorporated on 28 June 1927 with a capital investment by the financier Horacio Echeberrieta and Deutsche Luft Hansa of 1.1 million pesetas. Flight operations started on 14 December 1927. Within a year, the company was sponsored by the Spanish government to provide postal transport between Madrid and Barcelona. During the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, the aviation companies in Spain were combined and became state-controlled as a general interest public utility, coming into effect in early 1928. As a consequence, Iberia was merged into Compañía de Líneas Aéreas Subvencionadas S.A. (C.L.A.S.S.A.) and ceased activities on 29 May 1929. The name "Iberia" continued to be registered by Director-General Daniel de Araoz y Aréjula. As the name "Iberia" was still registered, it was used when operations began in nationalist-held territory towards the end of the Spanish Civil War. Following the Civil War, it became a purely domestic airline.

The airline was nationalised on 30 September 1944 and became part of INI. In 1946, it was the first airline to fly between Europe and South America after WWII, using a Douglas DC-4 flying from Madrid to Buenos Aires. By the Pact of Madrid in 1953, visa requirements were eliminated for US visitors to Spain. This stimulated the start of transatlantic flights between Spain and United States the following year. In addition, the amendments made in Montreal to the Convention on International Civil Aviation on 14 June 1954 were liberal to Spain, allowing mass tourism using charter planes.

By the time of its 50th anniversary in 1981, the Boeing 747 airline carried over 10 million passengers in a year for the first time. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Iberia also began to build up interests in other Spanish airlines – Aviaco, Viva Air, Binter Canarias and Binter Mediterraneo and Latin American Airlines – Aerolíneas Argentinas, Viasa and Ladeco.

In 1987 Iberia, together with Lufthansa, Air France and SAS, founded Amadeus, an IT company (also known as a GDS) that would enable travel agencies to sell the founders and other airlines' products from a single system.

During 2001 Iberia was privatised and shares were listed on stock exchanges. By 2002, when Iberia celebrated its 75th anniversary, nearly 500 million people had flown with them.

On 5 February 2006 the new Terminal 4 at Madrid Barajas was given over to Iberia and the Oneworld alliance members. This provided much-needed expansion capabilities for Iberia. Iberia is responsible for around 60% of the airport's traffic. In 2005 the airline and its regional branch Air Nostrum transported 21,619,041 passengers to/from Barajas.

In 2009, Iberia reached an agreement to merge with European rival British Airways. This merger was completed by April 2010, creating the International Airlines Group. The newly formed company consisted of British Airways and Iberia as well as their respective subsidiaries and has its main hubs at London Heathrow Airport and Madrid Barajas Airport as well as smaller hubs at Gatwick Airport and Barcelona El-Prat Airport. However, the merger between both companies has been somehow controversial. British Airways operates two funded principal defined benefit pension schemes in the UK. BA admits that one of the most serious financial risks it suffers is the challenging pension schemes combined deficit. The last actuarial valuation was 3.7bn pounds, value even greater than IAG capitalization. In addition and according to the "Pensions Act" for the year 2004, should it be necessary, UK's Pension Regulator could force Iberia or IAG to give additional financial support to BA's retirement pension schemes. In its last "Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 December 2011" BA declares that "negative movements in pension asset values and financial returns from these assets may increase the size of the pension deficit". This is the reason why IAG is currently under dividend restrictions which are expected to be partly dependent on the UK pension regulator's agreement.

Ownership

On 3 April 2001, Iberia was privatised and included in the IBEX-35 stock index of the Madrid stock exchange. The core shareholders are: Caja Madrid– 23.45%, British Airways 13.2%, SEPI– 5.20%, El Corte Inglés– 2.90%. British Airways has raised its stake in Iberia by purchasing American Airlines' remaining shares, reportedly paying £13m for the small shareholding. This increases the total stake in Iberia to around 10% and preserves its two seats on the Iberia board. British Airways also has first right to purchase another 32% of Iberia's shares. Consequently any takeover of Iberia would require the approval of British Airways.

British Airways cannot acquire more than 49% of Iberia as bilateral air services agreements between Spain and non-EU countries require Iberia to remain in overall Spanish ownership (at least 51%) if the airline is to retain its rights to fly to these countries from Spain. While the new EU-US Open Skies deal on air services removes this requirement on all flights between the EU and US by EU airlines, this is not the case for the lucrative Latin American market on which Iberia relies for the majority of its profits.

On 29 July 2008, British Airways and Iberia confirmed they were in merger talks and on 12 November 2009, they confirmed that they had reached a deal. The merger was approved by European regulators in July 2010. It was decided that Iberia would hold 45% of the newly formed company.

Iberia has 24,348 employees (at March 2007).

Subsidiaries and alliances

Iberia has a 9.49% stake in low-cost carrier Vueling which is based near Barcelona, with parent company IAG owning the remaining 90.51%. This was done to ensure that IAG does not have 100% of the shares in Vueling, but that the shares are split between its divisions. Iberia also has a 0.95% share in Royal Air Maroc.

Iberia is allied with American Airlines, Qantas, Avianca, British Airways, PLUNA of Uruguay and Grupo TACA, and on 1 September 1999, the company joined the Oneworld alliance. British Airways owns 55% of its share capital.

Iberia has a codeshare agreement with several Oneworld members: Cathay Pacific on flights from Amsterdam and London Heathrow to Hong Kong, Japan Airlines on flights from Amsterdam to Tokyo Narita and Royal Jordanian from Madrid to Amman, and with LAN Airlines for flights connecting Latin America and most of Europe.

In 2009 Vueling merged with Clickair, another Spanish low-cost airline.

Former subsidiaries

Aviaco, Aviación y Comercio, S.A. (Aviation and Commerce) was a subsidiary of Iberia mostly for domestic lines. It was founded on 18 February 1948 and operated until 1 September 1999.

Binter was the name of two airlines, both of which were subsidiaries of Iberia. Both airlines flew CN-235's :

Binter Canarias - was established on 18 February 1988 and started operations on 26 March 1989. It was formed as a subsidiary of Iberia. In late 1999 SEPI (the Spanish state holding company of Iberia) implemented the privatisation of Binter Canarias, but held on to a "golden share", permitting it to authorise any future shareholding deal of more than 25%. However, the airline was wholly owned by Hesperia Inversiones Aéreas, which bought the airline in July 2002. It is now owned by Ilsamar Tenerife (49.81%), Ferma Canarias Electrica (10.44%), Agencia Maritima Afroamericana (10.11%), Flapa (10%) and others (19.6%) and has 406 employees. Some of the owners of Binter Canarias decided to buy Navegacion y Servicios Aéreos Canarios (NAYSA) and to transfer some planes from Binter to NAYSA in order to reduce costs and increase benefits.
Binter Mediterraneo - created in 1988, in the likeness of Binter Canarias, and subsidiary of Iberia LAE. The airline was based in Madrid and operated a fleet consisting of five CASA CN-235 aircraft. Binter Mediterraneo linked the city of Melilla to Malaga, Almeria, Valencia and in its last year, with Madrid. Binter ceased operations after one of its planes crashed on August 29 of 2001 in the vicinity of Malaga airport while performing the Melilla-Malaga route. Acquired by Air Nostrum, another Iberia subsidiary, in 1998 and absorbed its operations. It replaced the remaining CN-235's with ATR 72's.

Services

In 2005, Iberia introduced its new Business Plus Class on its Airbus A340 aircraft.

In March 2009 Iberia announced that during the course of 2009–2011 it would renovate its economy class on all its planes as well as designing a new business class for its long haul planes.

In addition, Iberia is an aircraft maintenance company, servicing its fleet and those of another 48 companies, including some leading European airlines. Iberia is a supplier of aircraft handling services at all Spanish airports; its airline clients number more than 200.

Iberia was a founding partner in the computerised air ticket reservation system, Amadeus, with an 18.28% stake – this was sold in 2005. Iberia is also active as a tour operator through its Viva Tours and Tiempo Libre units, and with Cacesa, it supplies parcel shipment services.

Iberia makes use of e-tickets and encourages customers to print the boarding pass prior to their flight. Travellers with only carry-on baggage can go directly to the boarding gate. e-tickets sales accounted for 93% of all Iberia tickets sold in January 2006. In Spain identification of the traveller by means of an identity document or passport is mandatory for all airlines on all routes, including Spanish domestic ones.

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