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The Spanish airline Iberia will reduce the size of its fleet and the number and frequency of destinations it flies to due to the impact of the pandemic on demand, as reported by the executive president, Luis Galleo, in an interview with El País de España.
Gallego also explained to the newspaper that Iberia, part of the International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), wants to extend the temporary employment regulation file (Erte) of force majeure until December.
“In Iberia, we will be smaller, but we will be, something that is not clear that other airlines will be able to say,” Gallego said in the interview published this Sunday.
The airline manager added that, unfortunately, the airline was going to get smaller, but with its capacity adapted to demand. “We will have fewer planes, fewer frequencies, fewer destinations,” assured Iberia’s executive president.
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According to Gallego, the airline has been losing around seven million euros a day as closures to curb the spread of the coronavirus have grounded planes. According to the new decision of the company, 17 Airbus A340-600 aircraft from its fleet will withdraw from operations.
Gallego, who will assume the IAG presidency in September, noted that demand in the airline industry is not expected to return to 2019 levels until 2023 or 2024.
In May, Iberia and Vueling, both part of IAG, obtained 1,000 million euros, some US $ 1,100 million, in loans guaranteed by the Spanish State to face the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led the airline industry to the biggest crisis in its history.
(With information from Reuters)
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