Air Nostrum to Fly Glasgow – Madrid Route for Iberia

Spanish regional carrier Air Nostrum is to inaugurate a twice weekly link between Madrid and Glasgow from November 1. The new route will be operated for its parent company Iberia using a Bombardier CRJ200. Spain is currently the second largest overseas market and biggest European market for travellers from Glasgow with an estimated 267,000 O&D passenger travelling in the past year on scheduled flights from or to Glasgow, 4.8 per cent of its total traffic.

The airport currently has 28 weekly scheduled flights to Spain, serving the popular leisure markets – Alicante, Malaga, Palma and Tenerife. These flights are operated by budget airlines easyJet and Jet2.com, with Alicante the main market with over 1,750 seats in each direction. Madrid will represent the first city destination from Glasgow and is expected to be popular with tourists and business travellers.

The Spanish capital is already served from Edinburgh with easyJet offering ten flights per week on the route. An estimated 117,000 O&D passengers flew on this route in the past year and a proportion of these would have travelled from the west of Scotland for the flight and could, subject to price sensitivity, make use of the new direct flight from Glasgow. Despite the absence of direct flights a further 6,000 O&D passengers flew indirectly from Glasgow to Madrid, mainly flying with KLM via Amsterdam or British Airways via London Heathrow.

“We are continually working to expand our route network and not only will the new Madrid route further strengthen our connectivity with Europe’s major cities, it has huge potential to generate significant in-bound tourism for Glasgow and the west of Scotland,” said Amanda McMillan, Managing Director, Glasgow Airport. “It is important for Glasgow to have regular, direct links with European markets and while the introduction of this service is in part a response to demand from the local business community, Madrid is one of Europe’s most popular city-break destinations and will be a big draw for leisure travellers.”

Schedule:

IB8500 MAD1040 – 1235GLA CR2 2
IB8500 MAD1355 – 1550GLA CR2 4
IB8501 GLA1305 – 1700MAD CR2 2
IB8501 GLA1635 – 2030MAD CR2 4