There used to be a very significant number of these, probably peaking around the early 1990s.
AFAIK, Air Europa is the only survivor of a bunch that included (among others) Aviaco, Spantax, Hispania, LTE, Air Spain, Iberworld, Viva Air and so on. So what went wrong ? Too many airlines chasing too few tour operators ? Insufficient seat-only sales ? Customer dissatisfaction ?
Poor safety records ? Inadequate maintenance ? Bad management ? Culture clashes in the cockpit ? Rising fuel costs ? Recession ? Perhaps the rise of the low-cost airlines finally destroyed them.
Any thoughts ? In the case of Hispania, Thomson Holidays put a lot of business their way (similarly using Airways Cymru for their Bristol and Cardiff offerings), especially where they did not have based Britannia Airways aircraft. I don't know if that was just a convenient arrangement for TH or because they were very satisfied with Hispania and opted to make the most of them.