Iberia requests exemption for pilots to favour its low-cost carrier for the first time in the distribution of eight aircraft

Iberia’s 1,800 pilots are called to decisive assemblies for the future of the company in the short and medium distance business. As announced by Five daysmanagement has submitted a proposal to the Sepla union in which it offers an increase in the fleet that is uneven between the parent company and the low-cost subsidiary Iberia Express, for which it needs a waiver on what is ordered by the pilots’ agreement. Sources close to the negotiations indicate that a total of eight aircraft would be added: two for Iberia and six for Express, a proportion favourable to the low cost and contrary to what was established in 2014 to stop the labor conflict over the creation of that brand two years earlier. At that time, limits were imposed on the growth of Iberia Express above that of Iberia.

The pilots were assured, in Annex X of the eighth agreement, that Express could only add aircraft if the parent company did so in identical proportions. In addition, the capacity of the low cost could not exceed the 15% of seats operated by the veteran Iberia. All because the pilots saw their jobs threatened by the internal competitor designed to bring passengers to the long-haul Madrid-Barajas.

Once the guarantee that Sepla demanded was signed, Iberia’s management has been trying for years to separate the development of its two brands, which it could now achieve temporarily.

Once the eight new aircraft are in service, which is expected to happen in 2028, the ratio of one aircraft for Iberia Express for each unit that enters the parent company would return. The objective of the management team led by Marco Sansavini is that, within these four years, Iberia will operate 61% of the group’s short- and medium-haul aircraft (it currently has 65%), with 39% in the hands of Iberia Express (it currently operates 35%). The parent company would go from 48 to 50 short- and medium-haul aircraft, and the subsidiary would jump from 26 to 32 units.

The plan that the pilots must vote on is for Iberia to receive one aircraft in 2026 and another in 2027, while the younger sister company would get three in 2026, two more in 2027 and a final aircraft in 2028. The maxim would be maintained, however, that Express will never have a larger fleet than the parent company unless the viability of the group is at risk. Even in a context of plummeting production, with the consequent withdrawal of aircraft, the 60%-40% ratio between the fleets of both brands would be maintained.

Apart from this proposal, there are eight A321 XLRs that will be dedicated to long-haul flights for Iberia and will begin to arrive after the summer.

New opportunities

The package of measures negotiated by the company and the majority union Sepla includes the releases from co-pilot to captain, with two in Iberia Express for every three in Iberia; the creation of a single entry system in the company or in its low costthrough a Grupo Iberia selection centre, or the opening of technical and administrative areas, such as inspection and training, to pilots with more than one year in the company.

Finally, it is proposed to open a 30-day period for Express pilots to join the Iberia ranks, to do so as co-pilots on Iberia’s short or long-haul flights, or to opt for release as captains on the latter.

Iberia Express is the arm with which Iberia is facing the commercial pressure of Ryanair, Easyjet, Wizz, Transavia or Jet2, all of them specialists in low-cost airlines. The company needs its plan to be voted on and to obtain a majority in the pilots’ assemblies of its two companies. Otherwise, it will have to put it back on ice. The starting position of the Sepla union section in Iberia is that the new scenario would offer opportunities for numerous workers in the coming years.

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