Good news for Spain's airways: Iberia has unveiled the new products and services it will be rolling out in coming months at this year’s Fitur holiday travel trade fair in Madrid. Innovations include all-new Business and Economy class sections in the Spanish airline’s long-haul fleet, a makeover of the www.iberia.com website, and major improvements at its T4 hub in Madrid-Barajas airport.
The biggest innovations are the new seating sections starting in February with the delivery of the first of eight new Airbus A330s, to be incorporated through March 2014. The new Airbus A330s burn some 15 percent less fuel than the A340-300s they replace. Iberia’s A330-300s will come with 36 business class and 242 economy class seats. The new fleet will serve Miami, New York, Boston and Chicago, and Los Angeles will continue to be operated by the A340 fleet.
Starting in May, the cabins of Iberia’s long-haul A340-600 fleet will be refitted with the new seating sections. They will come with 46 Business class and 300 Economy class seats. The extra-wide Business Plus seats unfold into flat beds almost 80 inches long and are housed in individual modules, each with direct access to the aisle.
Business Plus customers can also enjoy new, intuitive entertainment options, using 15.5” screens similar to that of tablet computers, plus 4.2” touch screen remotes with virtual keyboard, with which passengers can make telephone calls, send text messages, and easily access entertainment options. Each month some 50 feature films will be available, plus television series, documentaries, some 200 musical options, and 3D games, among many other choices.
Iberia will soon be adding Wi-Fi Internet access and SMS capability for all its long-haul customers, and both Business and Economy class seats will feature power and communications jacks for passengers’ electronic devices.
Individual entertainment equipment for Economy class passengers will be available on the new Airbus A330s and Airbus A340-600s. Using intuitive 9” touch screens, passengers can choose amongst feature films in numerous languages, television series, documentaries, children’s programs, etc. Economy class seats have a modern design and are wider and more comfortable than current ones.
In addition to the new cabins, Iberia is launching other products and services: For example, the www.iberia.com website will undergo a complete makeover, with improvements to contents and greater ease of browsing. Iberia will also work on “socialising” its website, with the aim of connecting its more than 34 million visitors to the nearly 1.3 million followers of its social network profiles.
Passengers’ travel experience at Iberia’s T4 hub in Madrid-Barajas airport is being enhanced by the numerous innovations introduced under the Ágora program, including holographic “virtual agents” providing information, fast-track luggage check-in, new auto check-in machines, and quick services point for interacting with the company. A new customer service space for economy class passengers is also to be opened soon. Passengers can make easy connections at the T4 from the US to Iberia’s 31 destinations in Spain, 27 in Europe and 13 cities in Africa and the Middle East. In 2013 the airline will offer a total of 1.16 million seats between the U.S. and Spain. The Spanish airline carried 954,000 passengers in 2012, 4 percent over the previous year.