After years of declining figures, Iberia, and its low-cost sister company Iberia Express, have managed to turn things around and return to positive growth. So much so that this year, the Spanish company has beat all other European low-cost airlines for the rate at which their company has expanded this year.
In 2015, statistics have revealed that Iberia is the airline that has produced the greatest amount of growth between January and October, beating other popular European airlines such as Ryanair or Vueling.
The company, head by Luis Gallego, has exceeded the 14-million passenger barrier during the first ten months of the year, and registered a 14.3% rise of business. It also reported a profit of 200 million euro between the summer months of July and September.
With a growth figure of 14.3%, Iberia has beat the four main low-cost airlines in Europe this year: Norwegian (+11.6%), Vueling (+10.9%), Ryanair (+9.6%) and Easyjet (+4.1%).
In addition, the airline belonging to the holding company IAG also managed to increase passenger numbers by 13.9% for the same period.
Much of this success has been attributed to the recuperation of long-distance routes that had been previously dropped, to destinations including La Habana, Santo Domingo and Montevideo.
As for Iberia’s successful low-cost sister company, Iberia Express, created in 2012 to operate domestic and European flights, it also registered extremely positive growth figures for 2015, with an increase of 15.5%.
Nevertheless, the most popular airline and the one that captures the greatest number of passengers is still Ryanair, who transported more than 26.5 million passengers between January and October. This is still seven times more than Iberia Express, which, despite its massive growth this year, only carried 3.45 million passengers this year.
While suffering passenger losses in recent years, Ryanair is now fighting back and is once again expanding its business. This winter, it will inaugurate 54 new routes, many of which will depart from Barcelona, where Vueling enjoys a strong standing.
Easyjet will also open an operative base in Barcelona’s El Prat airport, making it the only one in Spain.
Norwegian is also consolidating its position within the Spanish market and currently flies around 4.5 million passengers to and from Norway. It will soon launch domestic routes in this country, linking cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga with various airports in the Canaries. Its medium-term plan is to connect Spain to the United States.
Other airlines that dominate the market, but to a lesser extent, are Air Europa and Air Nostrum.
Source: www.expansion.com
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