Madrid I
t was a triumphant return after a 14-year absence when on March 28, 2011, Spanish airline Iberia resumed a regular service between Madrid-Barajas International Airport (MAD) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for the fi rst time since 1997.
Flights are scheduled to depart three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, in the only direct service between Spain and the US West Coast. An additional Friday fl ight will run between the months of July and September, according to Iberia offi cials, who expect 68,000 travellers to use the new LAX–MAD service during its fi rst year of operation. To boost its chances of attracting these numbers, the airline will offer connecting fl ights between LAX and other Californian airports in Fresno, Sacramento and Santa Barbara, along with Honolulu in Hawaii, as part of a codeshare agreement with American Airlines.
The service is part of the recent business alliance between American Airlines and International Airlines Group (IAG), the Anglo-Spanish airline company formed in the January 2011 merger of British Airways and Iberia. It’s also one of the earliest signs that BA and Iberia are now starting to ‘work as one’, say market commentators. “We are very happy that Iberia is returning to LAX after a 14-year absence,” says Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports. “The non-stop route between Los Angeles and Spain will strengthen business, tourism and cultural ties with one of the most desirable cities in Europe, while providing connecting service to additional destinations.”
Madrid’s changing hub status If Madrid is “one of the most desirable cities in Europe”, its airport is surely one of the
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most admired. It is now just over fi ve years since the Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, formally opened its enormous Terminal 4, the work of internationally renowned architects Antonio Lamela and Richard Rogers. The terminal’s fl owing roof structure, use of vibrant colour and wide, open fl oor spaces have won Madrid-Barajas much critical acclaim. Crucially, the airport has the capacity to handle up to 70 million passengers per year. That kind of passenger volume,
however, is unlikely to be reached any time soon. In 2007, passenger numbers at Madrid-Barajas may have hit an all-time high of 52.1 million, but the effects of the worldwide economic recession soon saw them dwindle to 50.8 million in 2008 and to 48.4 million in 2009. Last year, however, Madrid-Barajas witnessed the fi rst signs of a recovery as numbers crept up almost 3% year-on-year to reach 49.8 million. Miguel Angel Oleaga Zufi ria, the airport’s managing director, says he is optimistic that they will reach 51 million in 2011.
“Although 2008 and 2009 were very
diffi cult years for us, as for all airports worldwide, it is now clear to me that there are good times ahead,” he says. “With the 2006 expansion, we practically doubled the size of the airport and now is the time for us to look to the future and take advantage of our capacity.”
Landing new routes
New routes and carriers will be vital to that strategy, he says, and he is keen to stress the airport’s solid track record in doing so: “Ten years ago, Iberia accounted for 80% of our passengers. Five years ago, Ryanair didn’t fl y to or from Madrid at all,” he points out. Today, Iberia accounts for 40.6% of passengers, while Ryanair is in second place with close to 10%. Next in line are
Air Europa (9.4%), Spanair (6.6%) and easyJet (5.8%). Other airlines, meanwhile, account for the remaining 22.6%. “We are open to any airline and we try to work with every airline to give them what they need. Low-cost carriers are happy to be here and we are happy to have them here,” says Oleaga. Low-cost airline NIKI, for example, has just launched a non-stop daily shuttle service between Vienna and Madrid.
“Our routes are successful because we have the right package for both business travellers and holidaymakers. In the case of Madrid in particular, I am confi dent that the introduction of direct fl ights from Vienna will help us to increase passenger volumes,” says NIKI owner, Niki Lauda.
Room for growth: Asia and Middle East One area where Oleaga admits there is room for improvement is in Madrid’s ability to attract more traffi c from Asia. “We are the principal point of entry for passengers travelling from Latin America to Europe, and we have good connections with North America, but our links with the Far East are not very good, so that’s where we’re going to try to improve,” he says. A glance at Madrid’s 2010 passenger
traffi c by geographic area confi rms this: passengers from Asia and Australasia accounted for just 0.4% of the total last year, compared with 10.8% from Latin America and the Caribbean, 5.9% from North America, 37.7% from Spain itself and 40.7% from elsewhere in Europe. The Middle East, meanwhile, looks like another challenge – but an opportunity, too. While the region contributed just 1.3% of total passenger traffi c in 2010, the launch of a new non-stop route between Madrid and Dubai by Emirates in August 2010 promises further growth from the region in 2011.
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