The purchase of Air Europa by IAG to merge it with Iberia and create a single long-haul company would place Spain and, specifically, the Madrid-Barajas airport as the fourth in terms of intercontinental flights. The operation is currently being defended by Iberia’s parent company before the European Commission. After a clock stop to thoroughly analyze the situation, the next milestone in the process will be to know the objections raised by the competition authorities to the proposal for the transfer of routes put forward by the group led by Luis Gallego. The company expects to know this response at the end of this month and continue moving forward to make the acquisition effective this year.
At this moment, Madrid airport occupies a second division analyzing the long-haul share of the reference airline. Iberia concentrates 45% of these flights and Air Europa, 19%. Added Barajas would reach 64% and would equal Frankfurt, where KLM has the same quota. Ahead would be Paris and Air France, with 61%, and Amsterdam, with 74% for KLM.
The purchase of Air Europa would also allow IAG to compete with northern European hubs on routes to America. In Madrid, combining the flights of the Globalia and Iberia companies covers 21 American countries and 6% of the frequencies with that continent. 12% of the routes depart from Paris and 10% from Amsterdam. In addition, IAG has committed to not be the sole operator with any American routes, if the European Commission ends up authorizing the merger.
Iberia defends that southern Europe needs a more powerful airport hub and this should be Madrid. If this does not occur, the airline argues that Spain could lose direct connections with several international destinations, which could affect the competitiveness of companies and hinder the flow of tourists. For travelers, the purchase of Air Europa could generate up to 1,000 new combinations and facilitate routes to Asia, as well as improve schedules. The transfer of routes, which is what Brussels is analyzing, should guarantee competition from other airlines.
The Government has announced an investment of 2.4 billion to expand the Barajas airport and reach 90 million passengers per year.
