Spain’s Iberia to Resume its Flights on July 1 After the Sector Already Loses Around €286 Billion Due to Pandemic

Iberia Airline in Spain is due to resume its flight routes on July 1 in a bid to start recovering its losses after the sector has lost an entire €286 billion as a result of its inactivity during the coronavirus pandemic.

THE company has confirmed that flights will resume on June 15 on some routes, mainly within Britain and France. Iberia has also announced that it will resume part of its short and medium route programme on July 1.

The company which belongs to the IAG group is only offering 21 per cent of its original route capacity that it had planned for the short and medium route network, which could increase to 35 per cent depending on what passenger demand exists and what restrictions will be eliminated or upheld.

You can travel to a minimum of 40 destinations in Spain and Europe in July and 53 in August. According to the company, in July, you will be able to travel to a minimum of 40 destinations across Spain and Europe, increasing to 53 in August. In addition, they have stated that customers who have travel vouchers for cancelled flights due to the Covid crisis will be able to use them this summer.

The domino effect of the Covid crisis in the airline sector continues, which will cause almost €3 billion to be lost meaning a 55 per cent drop in its income, according to the International Air Transport Agency, who in March valued losses of €113 billion, which is only half of what has been experienced until now.

In other airline news, today the British low-cost company easyJet has announced that it will fire 30 per cent of its workforce, as a result of the coronavirus crisis, as reported to the London Stock Exchange this Thursday.

The second largest low cost airline in Europe will begin negotiations with unions to address the cut in the upcoming days. The company has some 15,000 employees, which would mean cutting 4,500 jobs, although no specific figures have been given yet.

“We are going to have to consider very difficult options,” said the CEO of easyJet, Johan Lundgren, in statements collected by Europa Press.

One of the biggest problems for airlines in the context of this pandemic has been having to return money for tickets that customers bought before the crisis erupted, and were unable to go on their flights, as they were cancelled.

Consumer organisations have reported that customers have not been receiving these refunds. The airlines say that they are not giving them the necessary time needed to process this many returns and warn that executing all the reimbursements requested in the seven days that the law establishes would lead many companies to ruin, as they do not have enough liquidity to do so.

According to a survey by the British consumer association, four out of five Ryanair customers who requested reimbursement for cancelled flights have not yet been compensated by the Irish low-cost airline.

The European Commission allows companies to offer vouchers which can be used within a year but says that ultimately, if the customer asks for the money, the airline is required to refund it.

In a statement, a Ryanair spokesperson stressed that its clients “will receive reimbursement in due course, when this unprecedented crisis ends. The time to process the money reimbursements,” he explained, “is longer because we have to process 10,000 times the usual volume of cancellations and we have fewer workers available due to social distancing measures.”

Compared to other European airlines, the study indicates that 63 per cent of British easyJet customers have not received a refund in the same period, compared to 23 per cent for British Airways and 19 per cent for Jet2.com.

Written by

Laura Kemp

Originally from UK, Laura is based in Axarquia and is a writer for the Euro Weekly News covering news and features. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

Comments