Iberia has expanded the number of flights offered from its Madrid ({{MAD})) hub to the capitals of Costa Rica and Uruguay.

The oneworld alliance member said the move reenforces its commitment to the Latin American market as it aims to gradually recover its network to pre-pandemic levels.

Service from MAD to San José (SJO) in Costa Rica has been increased from 5X-weekly to daily, while the two weekly flights have been added to the airline’s MAD-Montevideo (MVD) schedule, taking the route to 5X-weekly. Both connections are operated using Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Before the COVID-19 crisis, Iberia provided daily flights from MAD to both MVD and SJO.

Víctor Moneo, the airline’s director of sales in Latin America, said he hopes the capacity growth on both routes would “help to reactivate demand” between Spain and Latin America.

OAG Schedules Analyser data shows that Iberia currently serves 18 destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean—the same number as it did at this time in 2019.

However, capacity this week (w/c Aug. 16, 2021) is about 36% lower than it was two years ago. Iberia is offering 64,900 two-way seats between Spain and points in Latin America and the Caribbean, down from almost 102,000 two years ago.

Iberia’s Latin America and the Caribbean network (w/c Aug. 16, 2021):

Credit: OAG Mapper

Photo credit: Joe Pries