Iberia now operates three non-stop flights weekly to Barcelona on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Passengers coming from other U.S destinations, such as Dallas, Houston, Orlando and Tampa can connect to the new route via American Airlines. At Barcelona airport, travelers can link with Iberia Regional / Air Nostrum and Vueling flights to cities such as Bilbao, Majorca, Malaga and Valencia in Spain or Milan, Nice, Paris and Rome in Europe. Iberia expects to carry 53,000 passengers on this route in the first year of operation.

The non-stop Miami-Barcelona flight will be the second U.S route inaugurated by Iberia this week as the airline has also started flying this past Monday, March 28, between Los Angeles and Madrid. Iberia now offers three non-stop flights weekly from Los Angeles on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays – with an additional Friday flight from July to September.

The aircraft used on these routes will be a 254-seat Airbus A-340/300, with a 36-seat Business Plus section, recently redesigned, that offers 2.20 meters of space for each passenger and seats that unfold into horizontal beds.

To promote the new Miami-Barcelona route, Iberia is awarding triple frequent flyer points for tickets acquired in iberia.com through May 31st. The 1,800 points obtained flying from Miami to Barcelona are enough to pay for three return Madrid-Barcelona shuttle flights, for two return trips between Madrid and Casablanca, or for one return flight between Madrid and Athens, Istanbul, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, or other cities in Europe.

Manuel Lopez Aguilar, Iberia’s Executive VP Commercial and Clients, said: “our direct connections will contribute to increase the business activity between Cataluna, one of the richest regions in Europe, and Florida, one of the most dynamic US states. It will also boost the flow of tourists in both sides of the Atlantic, as people in Miami will be eager to discover and enjoy not only one of the most interesting cities in Europe, Barcelona, but also an amazing region, Cataluna”.

Iberia now operates 10 weekly flights from Miami to Spain: apart from this new Miami-Barcelona route, it flies daily from Miami to Madrid. Iberia’s operations in Miami began on August 3, 1972. These new routes, together with the overall capacity increase on its flights from Boston, Chicago and New York to the Spanish capital will consolidate the United States as Iberia's most important long-haul market. In 2011 the airline will offer a total of 1,164,000 seats between the Spain and USA, representing a 13 per cent increase from 2010.

The new flights and the overall capacity increase are part of the joint business launched in October last year by Iberia, American Airlines and British Airways for routes over the North Atlantic. Customers of the three airlines have now more travel options available, with more frequencies, more destinations and better connections across their networks. The three airlines’ combined route network serves 433 destinations in 105 countries with almost 5,200 daily departures.

American Airlines and British Airways will also start new services as a consequence of the joint business. Beginning April 5th, American launches service from JFK to Budapest and on May 1st, it begins a new flight from Chicago to Helsinki. Also, British Airways will begin service from San Diego to London on June 1st.