Iberia Express

Iberia Express is a Spanish low-cost airline owned by Iberia, part of International Airlines Group (IAG). Its formal name is Compañía Operadora de Corto y Medio Radio Iberia Express, which describes the job: short- and medium-haul flying from Iberia's hub at Madrid–Barajas, to Spanish and European destinations, partly to feed passengers onto Iberia's long-haul network. It is listed as a Oneworld affiliate and holds its own Spanish air operator's certificate.

Iberia Express is a lower-cost arm of a network airline, not an independent low-cost carrier. Its flights sit inside the Iberia network at Madrid, and routes move between it and Iberia mainline as the group adjusts its plans.

Origins

IAG announced the new airline on 6 October 2011. The plan was for Iberia Express to take over routes that were losing money for the main airline and run them at lower cost, with newly hired pilots and cabin crew, while Iberia provided maintenance and ground handling, at least at first. Pilots at Iberia went on strike in late December 2011 over the job implications. Iberia Express began flying on 25 March 2012 with four Airbus A320s transferred from Iberia, in a two-class Business and Economy layout.

Fleet

A Wikipedia fleet table dated October 2025 lists 25 aircraft: 13 Airbus A320-200s with 180 seats and 12 Airbus A321neos with 232 seats, plus five more A321neos on order. The A321neos come from an Iberia order: Iberia keeps the long-range A321XLRs and passes the shorter-range neos to Iberia Express.

2025–26

• 29 March 2026: Iberia mainline took over the three daily Madrid–Berlin flights, which until then only Iberia Express had flown.
• 25 September 2026: Iberia and Iberia Express ratified an agreement with the Spanish pilots' union SEPLA. It adds eight aircraft to the group's short- and medium-haul flying between 2028 and 2030, six of them for Iberia Express, and 36 captain promotions at Iberia Express. TRAVEL Extra reported that the deal also changes the working relationship between the two airlines after long-running disputes over how growth is shared.
• 25 October 2026: Iberia mainline took over the two daily Madrid–London Gatwick flights from Iberia Express for the 2026/27 winter season.