Iberia, a Spain-based airline, has announced that its regional franchise partner, Air Nostrum, is terminating its services from Madrid, in Spain, to Manchester and Glasgow, in the UK.
The airline has confirmed that the service to the routes has been terminated due to lack of demand. While twice-weekly services to Glasgow will terminate on August 30, 2012, flights to Manchester Airport from Madrid are expected to end on September 14, 2012.
The airline is currently operating the route as a regional franchise partner of Iberia, and the recent closure of services is likely to affect the company’s sister company, British Airways (BA), as both are owned by the UK-based parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG). British Airways was hopeful of offering connecting services through UK airports from Latin American cities, and the cancellation of the services is likely to deal a blow, to its intentions of using Iberia’s network to compete with Air France, Lufthansa, KLM and Swiss air on those routes.
With the scrapping of the Glasgow and Madrid service by Air Nostrum, there is presently no service on offer connecting the two cities, although Easyjet, another UK-based airline, does provide flights from Manchester Airport, in the UK, to Madrid, in Spain.
Easyjet had also announced previously that it no longer intends to maintain a base in Madrid, Spain, due to its perceived lack of demand. The airline will be moving its aircraft to other bases in Europe, and will be reorganising its crewmembers that are based out of Madrid in a phased manner.
