Prestomedia/EFE
Iberia’s corporate director, Juan Cierco, highlighted the role of the Spanish airline as a connector of tourism and cultures when he received in Cartagena de Indias the award of the Association of Media Editors of the European Union and Latin America (EditoRed) for his professional career as a journalist and social communicator.
After receiving the award on Monday, Cierco told EFE that Iberia’s work as an airline is “to connect cultures, connect tourism, and support one of the great engines of the economy, both in Latin America and Colombia, such as tourism, as it is in Spain.
“One thing we like to do a lot in Iberia is to measure the social impact, that is, aviation logically has an economic impact, a commercial impact, but aviation is also a way to unite cultures, to unite citizens, to unite companies and economic, business, cultural bets,” he said.
Cierco worked in journalism as a correspondent and special envoy in Russia and the Middle East for the ABC newspaper and then moved on to organizational communications, an area in which he stood out for his work on institutional policy issues.
As Iberia’s corporate manager, Cierco is also in charge of communications, branding, marketing and sustainability.
The executive pointed out that the Spanish airline generates “400 million euros per year in economic exchange through connectivity between Spain and Colombia”.
The Spanish airline will celebrate 100 years of operation in 2027, so Cierco stressed that they have bet on Colombia and Latin America “in good times and bad”.
“Iberia has been flying tirelessly for decades to Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and (…) we intend to continue connecting people, to continue connecting talent, to continue connecting companies, to continue connecting cultures and to continue connecting, in short, economic, social and cultural development,” he explained.
Cierco also stressed that Iberia is “making a big bet on Colombia, which along with Argentina and Mexico is the only country in the world that has three daily frequencies to a city.”
“We fly three times a day to Bogota, we have 21 weekly frequencies, we carry 775,000 passengers a year, more than 2,000 people fly daily back and forth between Bogota and Madrid, and this commitment makes Iberia a reference for Colombia and Colombia is also a reference for Iberia,” he concluded.