Air Europa Increases Seat Offer in Latin America

DALLAS —The second-largest Spanish carrier, Air Europa (UX), has announced a significant seat offer increase on flights to various Latin American destinations from its main hub at Madrid-Barajas International Airport (MAD) for the winter 2023 season.

The airline will be expanding its capacity in terms of flight frequencies to offer roughly 3 million seats on transatlantic flights from Spain, which results in a 13.1% rise compared to the previous year.

Diego García, Air Europa's General Manager in Latin America, said, "Air Europa once again demonstrates that it is one of the most important players in the connection between Europe and America. Our clients choose the company's proposal for the combination of quality of service and benefits of our fleet and seek to do it in the fastest, most comfortable, safe, and efficient way."

The countries mostly affected by this schedule increase are Panama (+32,4%), Colombia (+35,3%), and Venezuela (+79,9%), three very valuable markets for the Iberian airline given the big cultural connections with Spain and the rest of Europe.

This view of Madrid's Terminal 3 may only remain as a memory, as all ATR and Embraer jets have been fully retired from the Air Europa operations. Photo: Adrian Nowakowski/Airways

Fleet Unification is Finally Completed

Before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, Air Europa operated a mixed fleet of up to five different aircraft families, complicating largely the optimized management of pilot training, handling, and maintenance processes specifically designed for every aircraft.

Until 2020, the airline counted 10 Airbus A330s, 7 ATR-72s, 18 Boeing 737-800s, 14 Boeing 787s and 11 Embraer ERJ-195 airframes in total. Today, however, after the completion of the retirement of all Airbus, ATR, and Embraer planes, the company has optimized its fleet operation and remains solely with 49 Boeing aircraft of the two families mentioned before.

Air Europa expected to take delivery of the new-generation Boeing 737 MAX aircraft series during the last five years, but with the aircraft groundings and the start of the COVID-19 crisis, this operation remains on pause until further notice.

At the moment of writing, the airline expects to receive in the coming weeks two additional Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which will be in fact operated by its subsidiary Aeronova, branded as 'Air Europa Express'. A new call for 737 first officers is in place to enlarge the pilot staff number at the airline's medium-haul department.

Featured image: Adrian Nowakowski/Airways

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