Flying since 1927

Iberia, Compañía Aérea de Transporte, was formally founded on June 28, 1927. In the company’s first decade it linked major cities on the Spanish mainland, the Canary Islands, and North Africa.


1927 | Iberia´s Take Off

On December 14, 1927, King Alfonso XIII looked on as Spain´s first commercial air route Madrid-Barcelona- was opened.


1928 | Gaining altitude

Iberia started with three Rohrbach Roland aircraft, powered by three engines and with a top speed of 205 km/h. There was room for a crew of two, ten passengers who travelled on wicker seats, their luggage, and freight, and a small toilet.


1929 | The Long-awaited Journey

Flight was regarded as a real luxury that very few could afford, while the rest could only dream about if.


1932 | Refuelling

A hand pump was used to fill the aircraft’s tanks from drums of petrol.

Flights to the whole world

In the early 1940s Iberia began regular flights to London, Lisbon, Paris and Rome in Europe, and also to Buenos Aires and Montevideo across the South Atlantic.

1939 | To Europe

Twelve years after its founding, Iberia became a truly international airline when it began regular service to Lisbon, in neighbouring Portugal.

1946 | Iberia Crosses the Atlantic

Iberia began flights to Buenos Aires, Argentina, stopping in Villa Cisneros, Natal and Rio de Janeiro. It was the first airline after the war to offer a regular service between Europe and South America.

1946 | The First Flight Attendants

On September 22 Iberia incorporated female attendants on its flights. They wore military-style uniforms.

Iberia Reaches New York

In the 1950s Iberia surpassed the half-million passenger mark, and began flights between Spain and New York in three Super Constellations. They were named for Columbus’ ships, the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María.

1951 | Delicatessen in the Sky

The “kitchens” bore little resemblance to those today. A select group of chefs prepared each meal, poured syrup on the cakes, and readied the trays that would later be served to passengers aboard Iberia airliners.

1953 | Air Mail

Since its beginnings the Spanish airline carried mail, along with passengers and freight.

1954 | New York, New York

The first Madrid-New York flight took place on August, 3, 1954, anniversary of Columbus’ departure on his voyage of discovery. Five days later, regular commercial service between the two cities began. A Super Constellation was used on this route.

1955 | Laundry

Iberia had a laundry service to wash, iron, and fold all the tablecloths and napkins used on the airline’s flights.

The Jet Age Begins

As of the 1960s, the new jet aircraft began to replace the slower propeller-driven planes. In this decade Iberia also began to perform passenger and aircraft handling services in all Spanish airports.

1961 | The Largest Commercial Jet in the World

On May 29, 1961 Iberia took delivery of its first three jet airliners, DC-8, which it was to use on its long haul route from Spain to New York, Caracas, San Juan, Mexico City, Havana, and Buenos Aires.

1962 | Two Anecdotes: A Birth, and a Stowaway

On a Madrid-Havana flight, just after a refuelling stop In the Azores, a passenger gave birth to a baby girl, to be named Loreto (see photo). Eight years later, on a Havana-Madrid flight, a stowaway managed to reach Madrid alive after spending more than ten hours in the front landing gear compartment of an Iberia plane at a temperature of minus 22 degrees centigrade.

1964 | Cars Also Fly

Here is the “Carvair”, the specialised car ferry flown by Aviaco, which was later to be merged with Iberia.

1970 | Iberia’s First Jumbo

On October 22, Iberia took delivery of its first Boeing B-747, popularly known as the Jumbo. It was christened the Cervantes.

Priority: Customer Service

In these years greater stress was placed on customer service, not only by offering new destinations such as Istanbul, Athens, Warsaw, Budapest, and Kuwait, but also by launching pioneer services such as the Madrid-Barcelona air shuttle, the Serviberia telephone service line, the Red Jackets and also the in-flight magazine, Ronda Iberia.

1974 | Red Jackets

The Red Jacket service was created in 1974 to attend to Iberia passengers with special needs in airports.

1974 | “Puente Aéreo” Air Shuttle

In early November Iberia launched Europe’s first walk-on air shuttle service, between Madrid and Barcelona.

1975 | “Inforiberia, May I Help You?”

Iberia established a year earlier a 24-hour new telephone information, reservations and ticket sales service, Inforiberia, which is now called Serviberia.

1977 | Solidarity Travels by Air

Children from 16 countries won trips to Spain in the Operation Plus Ultra initiative, in which children were rewarded for heroism, self-sacrifice, or helping others.

Unity Makes Strength

The airlines realised in this period that they must join forces in order to cut costs and offer the best service to customers. This led to the creation of the first consortiums for centralising aircraft maintenance, and air ticket reservations.

1981 | Art also Flies with Iberia

On September 10 Iberia flew Picasso’s famous painting Guernica from New York to its final home in Spain.

1982 | The First Overhaul

Commercial aircraft periodically undergo complete overhauls, in which all systems and components --from the engines and landing gear to to the passenger seats-- are taken to bits, inspected, cleaned, repaired or replaced when necessary, reassembled, and tested. Iberia Maintenance carried out its first major overhaul of a Boeing B-747 in 1982 on behalf of Air France.

1985 | The First Woman Pilot

On October 18 Iberia’s first woman pilot, María Aburto, made her first flight as captain of a Boeing B-727 from Madrid to Barcelona. As of 2004, 61 women pilots work at the airline.

1987 | Amadeus Ticket Reservation Consortium Founded

On June Iberia and another three European airlines joined to create “Amadeus”, a world-wide computerised air ticket reservations system, and which remains the world’s largest. This system supplies thousands of travel agencies and ticket sales offices with information about schedules, seat availability and prices on numerous airlines. The system is also used to make reservations and ticket sales, among other services.

Liberalisation

This was a key decade in the history of Iberia and of commercial aviation in general. These were years of major changes, and not only because of the Gulf War, which had a serious impact on all the airlines. For one thing, air transport in Europe was de-regulated. In addition, Iberia launched the first international customer loyalty programme in Europe, and also the pioneering web site www.iberia.com.

1991 | Iberia Plus, Europe’s First International Frequent Flyers’ Programme

Iberia rolled out the Iberia Plus frequent flyer’s programme, in which passengers are awarded points to exchange for free air tickets and other services.

1992 | The Olympic Torch Reaches Spain

The year 1992 was an historic one for Spain. It was the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, and the year that the Olympic Games were held in Barcelona, and the World’s Fair in Seville. Meanwhile, Madrid was designated as the “cultural Capital of Europe” during the same year. Iberia served as official airline for these three events, and sponsored many others.

1996 | The Internet

Iberia was one of the first airlines to launch a web site, but was also a pioneer in electronic commerce, selling air tickets directly on the site.

1999 | A Takeoff or Landing Every Five Seconds

On September 1 Iberia joined the oneworld airline alliance along with American Airlines, British Airways, Air Lingus, LAN Chile, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, and Qantas. Together they fly to almost 600 destinations in 135 countries. On average, every five seconds there is a takeoff or landing by an aircraft of an airline in the alliance.

A Profitable and Socially Responsible Company

Iberia is a good example of the compatibility of profitable operations with social and environmental responsibility.

2001 | Market Listing

On April 3, Iberia’s privatisation process was completed, when its shares were listed for the first time on the stock exchange. The following year Iberia was included in the selective Ibex-35 stock market index.

2004 | More than 1,200 Tonnes of Humanitarian Aid

In Iberia, solidarity is not a fashion, but a way of life. From its beginnings it has always cooperated actively and disinterestedly with organisations dedicated to helping others, including the "Mano a Mano" NGO formed spontaneously by Iberia employees to collect and deliver aid to the needy. In the past eleven years Iberia has transported more than 1.200 tonnes of humanitarian aid to people in Peru, Sudan, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mauritania, El Salvador, and elsewhere.

2006 | Iberia moves to T4 Madrid-Barajas

Iberia moved all its operations to the new Terminal 4 at Madrid‐Barajas Airport. It also founded Clikair, a low cost airline based in Barcelona.

2009 | Iberia and British Airways’s boards agreed a binding MoU

On July 9th, clickair and Vueling merged into a single airline, keeping the name Vueling. Iberia holds a take of 45.8% in the merged company. On November 12th, Iberia and British Airways ’s boards agreed a binding memorandum of understanding (MoU).

2010 | The European Union approved the merger between British Airways and Iberia without any condition

Also on July 14th, Iberia, American Airlines and British Airways received the regulatory green light to operate a Joint Business Agreement (JB) on transatlantic flights. The Spanish National Football Team, winners of the World Football Cup 2010 in South Africa, chose Iberia Airlines as its carrier for the tournament.

A New Iberia

In recent years Iberia experienced one of the greatest transformations in its history, becoming a profitable, modern, dynamic and efficient airline.

2011

Iberia merged with British Airways under the holding IAG Group.

2012

Iberia set up the low-cost carrier Iberia Express

2013

Iberia unveiled its new brand image, with a new logo and livery.

2014 - 2015

Iberia opened more routes than in any previous period, while redesigning its passenger cabins and replacing a large proportion of its long-haul fleet with 29 new Airbus A330s and A350s, all of them twin-engined and fuel-efficient, and symbolising the new Iberia.

2016 - 2017

Iberia was ranked the most punctual of all the world’s major airlines, and it launched new routes to Tokyo and Shanghai.

2017

Iberia was awarded Skytrax 4-star category.

2018

The airline received its first Airbus A350/900s, the most modern and environmentally friendly airliner on the market. The year saw the company earn its highest profits ever, with a 61 million euro increase in the year to a total of 437 million.

2019

Sustainability and commitment to the environment dominated the strategy of the airline business, and Iberia and its IAG sister airlines set zero net carbon emissions as their target for 2050.

Digital transformation was the byword at Iberia, which introduced biometric passenger identification and boarding, along with customer communication via WhatsApp and voice (Alexa, Aura, and Google home).

And the year 2019 also saw Iberia embrace diversity like never before, recruiting and promoting women in all company areas.