Originally Posted by
Rutan16
Iberia/Aviaco visits long predate to 80s !
Go right back to the late 60s, With props DC7 and Constellations through Caravelle, DC-8, DC-9, DC-8 ( super) for Aviaco on inclusive tour ( charters)
Schedules services started with mid seventies and the initial service was indeed three weekly to Madrid and onwards to Malaga with Iberia DC-9s this was supplemented with a further 3 weekly Barcelona and onwards to Madrid service at some point.
With the arrivals of the MD87 the service dropped the Malaga legs and all flights routed via Barcelona for a very long time
Larger MD80s would sometimes operate even Aviaco ones for Iberia ( a reversal on the previous decades). Subsequently the mad dogs were replaced with Airbus models .
Iberia Boeing 727s were always rare at Manchester (through I remember a series of midnight charters at some point ) probably they were considered to premium heavy
The service remained constant ( through times changed) until the IAG merger and the subsequent sale of BA Regional assets .
At its highest Madrid would have several BA ( IB codeshares ) to Madrid per day and IB to Barcelona ( BA codeshare) at Manchester , and something similar at Birmingham.
With the sale to Flybe Manchester (and Birmingham) lost their Madrid connection for a period of time
Then Easyjet and Air Nostrum (IB regional ) took on the challenge and priced the route into the ground
Both left and a vacancy remained
Subsequently Ryanair took on the route and Iberia again would return with a low frequency service using Express and that is where we are today.
Iberia Express you might initially think are feed operation for the parent however their schedules and fare structures suggest otherwise.
In fact the Vueling services provide more connections particularly domestically from Barcelona indeed pricing wise potentially back North East into the rump EU as well.
Correct, IB Express are not really anything like Iberia Mainline. There seems to be a massive distinction between Express and Mainline even when booking.
MAD was indeed unserved for a number of years (BER was in a similar situation at the time) and then IB and EZY jumped on the route with Ryanair also overlapping. It was a case of poor timing.