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This year 2018, specifically the 8 of November, Iberia celebrates 50 years flying to Ecuador, connected to the country with the main destinations in Europe and the world from its main HUB at Madrid International Airport. Here I present the story, present, destinations and fleet of the main Spanish airline.

Last 9 April in Quito, and together with the Chancellor and Ambassador for Ecuador of Spain, the airline Iberia celebrated its 50 anniversary of operations in the country of the “Middle of the World”, which you currently fly with 6 weekly flights on the Madrid route – Quito – Madrid after having eliminated the traditional triangulation with Guayaquil since the end of March 2017.

On this important anniversary of half a century, the airline ratifies its commitment to Ecuador and to continue being the leading airline in connections for Ecuadorians with the world and its strategies are aimed at solidifying its operation and making against the competition in a market that every day becomes more attractive for the arrival of new airlines from various countries of the world.

History of Iberia in Ecuador

Iberia – Airlines of Spain, S. A. Unipersonal Operator (THERE IT IS: ICAO IB: IBE), operates in Ecuador since the year 1968. one day friday 8 november ago 50 years ago he made his first landing in Quito, then covering the Madrid route – Quito – Santiago and return with the airline's first jet aircraft the Douglas DC-8 series 63.

Initially, these flights operated with 3 weekly flights on mondays, Wednesday and Friday.

back then, the airline had Douglas DC-8 aircraft in its fleet, Douglas DC-10 y Boeing 747, which landed in Quito carrying out, depending on the operation and type of aircraft, one or two stopovers given the autonomy of the aircraft of the time. It should be remembered that Iberia's first destination in the region was Buenos Aires.

The main operating aircraft in Quito was the Douglas DC-10 aircraft and after the first route with the final destination Santiago de Chile, in the year 1992, the route operated between Madrid – Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and Quito, but the connection was not attractive or profitable.

With the growing market and positioning of the airline in Ecuador and Latin America, The airline was increasing its flight frequencies to all its destinations, where Ecuador was included thanks to its geographical importance and growing tourist demand, which would later be driven by the high migratory flow between both nations.

For 1996, Iberia enters a new era, incorporating new long-haul aircraft, that did not require more than intermediate technical stops between Madrid and America, which allowed it to adjust its offer and even reach new markets, your product became even more attractive. The 29 February this year, The first Airbus A340-300 named “Concha Espina” joined the fleet, which allowed the airline to begin offering point-to-point flights.

With these new planes, more efficient, with greater capacity and state-of-the-art technology, in december 1997 Iberia began to fly to Quito with 3 weekly flights and Guayaquil was added to its list of destinations, since given the height of the Former Quito Mariscal Sucre Airport and its short track, flights to Europe could not be made directly and thus began the famous triangulation between Madrid, Quito and Guayaquil.

During the year 1998 and thanks to market studies carried out, The airline obtains approval from Madrid to start the fifth frequency to Quito and Guayaquil. The challenge for the airline was to continue growing in Ecuador and the desire to have a daily flight connecting Madrid with Ecuador was finally realized at the beginning of 1999 and so Iberia began to fly every day of the week from Madrid Airport – Barajas.

For purposes of 1999, given demand and positive numbers, the Ecuador base obtained approval to operate 8 weekly flights. This additional flight took place on Saturdays, also on the Airbus A340-300.

With the high migratory flow of those years from Ecuador to Europe in general, the airline already had the largest aircraft incorporated in its fleet since the year 2003, Airbus A340-600 aircraft, natural replacement for -300, with a capacity to 346 passengers, back then in 2 lessons. These new planes were put to fly to Quito to increase their supply and meet the growing demand..

In the following 10 years, the Iberia operation stabilized in Ecuador, the eighth frequency was reduced as new competitors entered the market and the migratory flow began to gradually decrease.

After the opening of the New Quito Airport, in the year 2013, Iberia's operation began to change in Ecuador. With the new operating facilities of a lower airport and a longer runway, Iberia became the first airline to operate directly between Quito and Europe with 3 direct weekly flights, the others 4 weekly continued to operate in a triangular fashion. In this season, for the first time the Airbus A330 aircraft also operated in Ecuador.

At the end of March 2017, Iberia made the decision to close its base in Guayaquil and focus operations exclusively in Quito, where you currently fly with 6 weekly flights, except on fridays, with their Airbus A340-600 aircraft, the only airline that, thanks to the capacity and power of the 4 4x RR Trent engines 500 You can make this direct flight from a high altitude and hot airport (high & hot).

Iberia news in Ecuador

For this year 2018, Iberia will offer close to 225.000 seats between Quito and Madrid, what a represents 8% more seats on the route than the 2017 and additionally offers, a wide network of connections from Quito thanks to the alliance with LATAM Ecuador to Cuenca, Guayaquil and the Galapagos Islands and beyond Madrid with more than 100 destinations in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia.

As we discussed in the previous paragraph, Iberia is the only airline that flies direct to Europe from Quito. Their 17 Airbus aircraft 340-600 have proven to be the only aircraft, for now, in having the technical capacity to operate directly and safely in the event of loss of engine to be able to "leave" Quito without problems and with all the passage full to Madrid.

With this opportunity and thanks to the more than 480 thousand Ecuadorians living in Spain and close to 60 thousand Spaniards living in Ecuador, the airline has managed to maintain high occupancy numbers with over the 80% on average and sustained growth. Within the framework of the celebration of 50 years of the airline that will be held throughout the 2018, Iberia has taken the opportunity to officially launch its new Premium Economy class in Ecuador, which brings a refined service for those people who seek to pay a little more for a service superior to Economic and inferior to Business, but with great advantages.

The new cabin offers more space, greater comfort and better service on board and preferential treatment at Madrid airport. These new 23 seating, that now allow Iberia to offer 3 classes and options, offer a 20% more spacing between rows (94 inches in Premium Economy vs. 78,7 centimeters to Economy), wider seats with 48 centimeters, a 40% more recline, adjustable headrests and reclining footrests, 12 full HD screens″ inches, service on board with welcome drink, exclusive menu and personal hygiene kit.

Among other novelties of Iberia for Ecuador within its anniversary 50, the alliance with PROEcuador stands out, that allows the internationalization to Europe of Ecuadorian SMEs, of which more than 8400 micro, small and medium-sized companies will be able to benefit from discounts of up to 10% in tickets and accumulation of points within the On Business program.

Finally, for the 50 years, Iberia offers a discount of 50 euros on all tickets to and from Ecuador, buying the ticket during April 2018 to travel between 15 September and until 31 march 2019, entering the code 50ECUADOR YEAR at the time of purchase.

destinations

The main Spanish airline, the most punctual in the world during the 2016 and 2017, part of the IAG group, fly to 120 destinations in 42 countries, with presence in 4 continents. Of all your network, 19 are in Latin America where it operates with 250 weekly flights.

Fleet

Iberia currently has a large fleet made up of 141 aircraft between Airbus A319 models, A320, A321, Airbus A330-200, -300 y Airbus A340-600. further, has an order of orders of more than 50 aircraft with which it will modernize its fleet with the Airbus A320 and A321neo models and which will be the gradual replacement of the A340, el Airbus A350-900.

The interview

We were able to interview Marcos Sansavini, Commercial Director of Iberia, who tells us the details of Iberia's operation in Ecuador and the airline's plans.

NL: How is the Ecuadorian market for Iberia??

MS: The Ecuadorian market has experienced years of strong growth in 2014 and 2015, then came years that affected as happened with the earthquake, now are years of progressive recovery. We expect an even more significant recovery in the coming years. Many of the investments we make in improving product and capacity, with a 8% more than seats, we will have 225 thousand annual seats, the new Premium Economy seat, the agreement with PROEcuador, They are all investments that make sense within the framework of a positive evolution of traffic from Ecuador.

NL: How is Iberia's operation today??

MS: We operate with 6 weekly flights directly from Madrid to Quito with the Airbus A340-600.

NL: Is there a projection to operate the seventh frequency?

MS: Previously, we had the 7 weekly flights, but they were not direct flights, we had flights some with triangular scale to Guayaquil, which did not give the best customer experience. We have opted to operate all direct flights from Quito and on the other hand, have cooperation with LATAM to operate with them from Guayaquil to Madrid.

At this time we want to make sure that all the investments made, such as the Premium Tourist and the increase in 8% of seats is consolidated and then the idea is to achieve the daily flight if the conditions allow it and we are going to analyze them, but for now there is no decision about it.

NL: How does Iberia handle the issue of cargo to Madrid taking into account the "hot" operation & high?

MS: It's very important, here we have some sectors such as the production of Ecuadorian fruit and cocoa that are of interest in Spain and Europe. Flowers have great relevance for this segment.

NL: With the new Airbus A350, What is the projection of these aircraft for Latin America as a natural replacement for the A340-600??

MS: We have not yet defined the entire development plan for this aircraft.. We must measure with the parameters of this plane under what conditions we must operate at each airport, It is a fine work that is done in terms of the theme of the track, hot operation & high, for which we hope with an easy and iconic first destination such as New York, but the projection over the years is that the A350 will operate in all the destinations of the Airbus A340-600.

the airbus 350 is the replacement of -600 and the vocation is that it replace, where you can, al 340-600. Keep in mind that we have orders 16 planes, for which this is the idea and other destinations.

The entry of this fleet is progressive from this year where they enter 2 planes up to 2023. This will allow all crews to be trained and Airbus gives us a great benefit, which is the commonality of pilot training., this means that a pilot flying the A350, can keep flying -600. It is a matter of efficiency that allowed us to choose this aircraft plus a favorable performance for us..

NL: Leaving behind a little Ecuador, How has the Latin American market been for Iberia??

MS: It is a market that has experienced a difficult crisis in recent years, in particular the 2016, the southern part of Latin America, we are talking about brazil, Chile and Argentina, prices hit, not necessarily the volume of traffic, since demand can be stimulated, which forced everyone to cut prices a lot to maintain the necessary traffic volumes.

From 2017, We have seen a very important change in trend, this change has been favored thanks to the economic recovery of Brazil, Argentina and the positive development of Chile. While the northern part of the region we have continued to develop, where we did not see the strong fall of these markets. The 2017 for Latin America as a whole, It has been a very positive year for us., just like him 2016 it was a very difficult year. Now for this year the prospects are for Latin America to continue, not at the speed of 2017, but let it be another positive year.

NL: To close and returning to Ecuador, How does Iberia see the competition?, taking into account the new airline that flies from Madrid to Quito and potentially one more?

MS: This is a very important point. Iberia has undergone a transformation process that we have now presented, deep, that allows us to be not only an airline of excellence, but also profitable. This allows us to compete with anyone, with low-cost model companies, with high service companies and in the end we have segmented our offer and we have from a very efficient and accessible tourist service, to a Business that has won awards and we are the most punctual airline in the world.

We are ready to compete with anyone, Competition is welcome and we are going to make life very difficult for them., betting on our strengths.

We congratulate Iberia on this anniversary and thank you for your invitation to be part of your celebration.

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