Iberia to Add Fourth Weekly Lagos Flight

Spanish national carrier Iberia is to add a fourth weekly flight between Madrid and Lagos starting on Friday, July 6, 2012. It already operates flights to the Nigerian city on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The new flight adds 244 seats per week to this route, and will bring the total to above 37,400 seats this year, or about 13 per cent more than in 2011.

The airline, part of the International Consolidated Airline Group (IAG) alongside British Airways, links the largest cities in Spain and Nigeria using specially configured Airbus A319 equipment, with wider Business Club class seats and enhanced separation between rows for premium customers. These aircraft are also used on Iberia flights to Cairo, Malabo, Moscow, and Tel Aviv.

Iberia launched its Lagos route in June 2004, and it remains the sole airline to offer direct flights between Spain and Nigeria. Last year it carried nearly 25,500 passengers on the route, a 3.6 per cent increase over the previous year. Nearly 60 per cent of passengers make connections in Madrid to/from other Iberia destinations, such as London, Chicago, Bogota, and New York.

Aside from Lagos, Iberia flies to another ten African destinations: Luanda, Algiers, Oran, Cairo, Malabo, Casablanca, Marrakech, Rabat, Tangiers, and Dakar. In July it will launch services to Nouakchott in Mauritania and Accra in Ghana.

Richard Maslen

Richard Maslen has travelled across the globe to report on developments in the aviation sector as airlines and airports have continued to evolve and…