Iberia Auctions Flights to South America in Pesetas Only This Week

If you have ever wanted to travel to South America but have not done so because of the hefty price tag attached to a flight ticket, this special offer from Iberia might make you change your mind and finally go for it.

The Spanish airline is auctioning tickets to South America just this week on its website, with the motive of celebrating 70 years that it has been operating flights between Spain and the southern American continent.

However, all seats sold in the auction will be offered in pesetas, and at the same price that they were during the 1950s, when the routes were first introduced.

The auctions started on Monday this week, with flights to Buenos Aires and Montevideo up for grabs. The starting price for these flights was 7,250 pesetas (43 euro), the cost of a ticket between Madrid and the Argentinian capital in 1946.

While the flights will be sold in pesetas, the winning bidders will pay for them in euros at the equivalent exchange rate.

Other destinations will include Mexico and Miami.

Iberia was the first European airline to operate routes between Europe and Latin America in 1946, after the Second World War – 70 years ago this year.

The first ever flight took place on 22 September 1946, leaving Madrid-Barajas with the destination being Buenos Aires. The whole journey took 36 hours, as the airplane stopped three times; in Villa Cisneros (Western Sahara), where passengers stayed the night at the Villa Cisneros hotel, which was built especially for this purpose, and Natal and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

In those days, crossing the Atlantic was a complicated operation that required precise calculations so that the journey was carried out without any errors. Suitcases, hand luggage and even the passengers themselves had to be weighed and accounted for, as any errors could be the difference between landing on the ground or in the sea.

In addition, due to the fact that the flight was such a long one, the airline deemed it necessary to introduce a number of employees whose job was to specifically attend to and take care of the passengers’ needs – today’s air hostesses.

Nowadays, Iberia is the leading airline that operates between Europe and Latin America, offering more than 250 flights a week to 20 destinations in 15 different countries on the continent.

Last year, Iberia reopened its route to La Havana, the Cuban capital, and two years ago it began to offer flights to Montevideo (Uruguay) and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). Other recent additions include Cali and Medellín in Columbia and San Juan (Puerto Rico).

For further information about the auction flights, visit the Spanish website (not the English version) at: http://www.iberia.com/?market=ES&language=es

Source: www.abc.es