In 1997 Spanair began its regular intercontinental flights, starting their services between Madrid and Washington-Dulles. Shortly after, they transformed their charter operations into regular lines in their routes to Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Habana. Today, the company continues to offer its intercontinental routes both in their own planes as well as thorough agreements with other companies.

As this company appeared in the intercontinental aviation market, it brought a healthy dose of motivation to its competitors that, at the time in which this happened, were somewhat lost in their goals and activities. In other words, as Spanair began operating overseas routes, bringing some competitive bringing along, the other airlines had to revamp their operations, and particularly in the case of state-owned or state-run companies.

One of such cases was that of Iberia and its south American routes; the Spanish state-owned company became the main shareholder in Aerolineas Argentinas and as such, began setting the pace, which was not exactly the best. During the first years of that association, passengers going between Europe and South America routinely preferred to travel in the Argentine planes because service onboard Iberia's fleet left much to be desired, and it was quite a mess.

However, as it happens too often in this age of mergers and acquisitions, Iberia led Aerolineas Argentinas to the brink of bankruptcy until it lost the concession granted by the Argentine government to run the national carrier. And within this context, Spanair introduced itself in the market and its lucrative routes: it is estimated that in Argentina there are two and a half million immigrants just coming from Spain alone.

Shops, Auctions and Malls

Articles

Similar Sites

Related Web Pages

Books

Forum