The Diplomat
The President and CEO of Iberia, Javier Sánchez-Prieto, yesterday stressed the importance of reaching an agreement with Air Europa that would allow the creation of a large operator at Barajas that would allow it to compete globally as a major hub.
During his speech at the Aviation and Tourism Forum organised by Ciudadanos and the MEP José Ramón Bauzá, Sánchez-Prieto highlighted Barajas airport as a link between continents, as it has a privileged geographical position and adequate infrastructure.
However, he advocated improving the interconnection at Madrid airport, specifically by strengthening its direct rail connection.
He also indicated that Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport “lacks” the development of air cargo, “very important to support the business” and “less seasonal” activity, which is why he argued that the airport needs to develop this area further. In this regard, he stressed the need to have an operator that is capable of developing the activity at Barajas as a hub, at which point he pointed out that the acquisition of Air Europa is “necessary to have that operator that allows” the development of this activity.
He also commented on the airport’s poor connection with Asia, something that must be improved in order to maintain competitiveness, especially bearing in mind that the future of tourism will be “in Southeast Asia”, where the rise of the middle classes will result in millions of new tourists.
After the coronavirus crisis, Sánchez-Prieto considers that calm has not been recovered and that it continues to be “a turbulent world”, especially due to the war in Ukraine, which increases international flights through the area by up to four hours and with fuel prices reaching record highs.
Even so, she launched a message of “optimism”, stressing that demand “is coming back super-fast”, that people “want to go out, want to travel”, as “we have known a world without travel and we didn’t like it”.
