Iberia plots Summer 2020 expansion and adds Washington DC to its network

Whilst IAG is plotting to buy Air Europa, Iberia is getting on with the business of running an airline – and is adding new routes and capacity for its Summer 2020 programme.

Let’s round up the changes…

North America

First up is a new Madrid to Washington DC service.

Iberia A330 at Madrid Airport – Image Economy Class and Beyond

The airline will launch a five times a week service with an Airbus A330-300. The service is timetabled as follows:

IB6131 DEPART MAD 15:50 ARRIVE IAD 18:55 
IB6132 DEPART IAD 20:30 ARRIVE MAD 10:15+1 

Commences 1st May 2020
Booked Equipment: Airbus A330-300 (Three-Class).

The A330-300 is configured with 29 Business Class, 21 Premium Economy and 242 Economy seats. Iberia estimates this will place 68,000 between the two cities. Whilst it might not be good for the business traveller needing to meet in the afternoon, the evening flight will connect to the lunchtime/afternoon departure bank from Madrid.

North American destinations get a boost with the San Juan (Puerto Rico) route getting a major uplift to a seven weekly frequency operation, whilst the Madrid-San Francisco service will run for the entirety of the Summer timetable (April to October).

Tokyo Calling

Moving over to Tokyo, the service will get an uplift in terms of capacity and flights, with the Airbus A350-900 to operate from 29th March 2020 – and the service changing from five flights a week to a daily operation from June 2020.

Guayaquil rejoins the network

Guayaquil, Ecuador will also feel the benefit of the fleet growth, with the Iberia returning to the area, with the airline launching a four-flight a week operation from the 13th December 2019.

And the A350 fleet helps too.

Iberia Airbus A350 at Madrid – Image, Economy Class and Beyond

Speaking of the Airbus A350 fleet, Iberia will have its full complement of 12 soon enough (with an additional six frames joining in 2020) – this means more routes will be flying the A350. Currently Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, New York and Chicago have this frame assigned – however, Tokyo and Los Angles will also get the benefit of the type soon enough.

More travel and redemption opportunities

Iberia appears to be going in big for Summer 2020 programme with boosted frequencies and a new North American network destination that can benefit from it’s Joint Venture programme. Certainly, if you need redemption seats, now is the time to pull the trigger when a route opens.

With additional aircraft coming on stream in 2020, it’ll be interesting to see where Iberia deploy them…

… whilst the Air Europa side-show plays out…