Iberia Offers New African Options

Spanish national carrier Iberia is to expand its network in Africa this summer with new links from Madrid to Nouakchott, the capital and largest city in Mauritania and the Ghanaian capital Accra. Both flights will be operated twice weekly using Airbus A320 Family equipment with the Nouakchott flight routing via Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

Iberia currently serves 12 destinations in Africa, including flights that are operated by its partner carrier Air Nostrum under the Iberia Regional brand. Only two of its routes are served by widebodied equipment – Johannesburg and Luanda – the rest using A320 Family models, or in the case of some North African destinations, regional jets.

The new Madrid – Nouakchott route will commence from April 26, 2012 and Iberia will become only the second European carrier to offer regular flights to the Mauritanian capital alongside Air France, which offers a three times weekly A330-200 link from Paris CDG.

Iberia will become the seventh European carrier to offer flights to Accra when it begins that route from June 1, 2012. British Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Lufthansa all offer daily connections from London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, while Brussels Airlines (from Brussels), TAP Portugal (from Lisbon) and Virgin Atlantic (from Lisbon) also serve the city.