Iberia Shuts Down Operations in Miami, Offers Direct Flights to Central American Capitals

Spain´s Iberia Airways has officially closed down its regional hub in Miami to start flying nonstop from Madrid to Panama, Guatemala and Costa Rica using its own fleet, as well as to Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua through a bilateral agreement with TACA, the local air service provider.

Drawbacks derived from heightened security controls in the United States have forced Iberia to lock down its international hub in Miami, a spokesperson from the Spanish air company told Caribbean News Digital.

Iberia used to have a couple of direct flights from Madrid to Miami -both of them codeshare with American Airlines- and used to fly from there to cities in Central America and the Caribbean Basin with its own jetliners. However, demand for the Madrid-Miami connection has taken a nosedive in recent months, down by as much as fifty percent. Iberia, though, will keep a daily flight to Miami.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., all American airports have implemented tighter security measures for foreign passengers at immigration and customs checkpoints.

Before Iberia´s move, Central American fliers en route to Madrid were bound to apply for U.S. visas, defray $100 in paperwork and endure long immigration procedures before entering American territory.

Iberia´s Miami hub began operating in 1992 and moved nearly half a million passengers last year alone.

The codeshare agreement with American Airlines -it commenced in 1998- remains in place and gives Iberia passengers the possibility of flying back to Madrid from Chicago, New York, Miami and twenty-something other U.S. cities.

In addition, Iberia will keep direct flights to Havana and Puerto Rico´s San Juan, though the latter connection makes a stopover in Santo Domingo.

With 2.4 million passengers flown in 2003, Iberia runs a number of major routes between Europe and Latin America, embracing roughly 17 percent of that market, one and a half point below the newest European giant born out of a merger between Air France and KLM.