Peru consolidates position as key Iberia destination in Latin America this year

Peru’s importance as an Iberia destination is being heightened in 2011, when the Spanish airline is offering a total of nearly 350,000 seats to Peruvians travelling to Europe and to Peru-bound Europeans.

Iberia set a new record last year by carrying 305,000 passengers between Lima and Madrid, which represented a 30% increase over 2009, one of the largest recorded anywhere by the airline.

Growth is continuing in 2011, for despite the bleak world economy; data for January-May showed an additional 5.4% increase in passenger traffic on the route, very significant considering the already high growth of 2010. Load factor for January-May 2011 has almost reached 90%, similar to the level of 2010.

This growth is consolidating Iberia’s leadership on the route, where its market share has climbed from 27% to 34% in the course of the past year. This means that one of every three passengers flying between Peru and Europe chooses Iberia.

Speaking with Peru’s most important travel agents in Lima last week, Iberia’s international marketing chief Ángel Valdemoros said “Peru is a strategic market for Iberia, and it is one of the fastest-growing ones, too”. He added that the company’s aim now is "to operate two flights per day at the earliest possible date, for the maximum convenience of all our customers”.

Iberia began flying to Lima in April, 1963, and today it links the Peruvian and Spanish capital cities with 254-seat and 342-seat Airbus A340s, and offering the recently upgraded Business Plus seating class, with 220 cm of personal space, and seats that unfold into totally horizontal beds.