By Arturo Higueras
World2Fly – A New Spanish Airline
In the summer of 2021 a new airline will be taking to the Spanish skies. Last week, World2Meet presented the image of its new carrier. World2Fly will be the next step of the Iberostar group to connect Spain and the Caribbean. Like many of its rivals, this tour operator seeks to expand its offering in the Caribbean market by connecting its destinations there with its airline.
Back in August, World2Meet, one of the Iberostar divisions since 2016, announced its intention of launching its new airline on the 2021 summer. World2Fly was registered as a trademark almost a year before, in September 2019. Gabriel Subías, CEO of the company, expected then to receive all the necessary licenses in March to begin the operation from Madrid-Barajas airport to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Cancún, Mexico and La Habana, Cuba. Those flights will be operated by one of the two new Airbus A350s that the carrier has acquired.
Last week, Iberostar presented the new image of the Spanish carrier and announced that Bruno Claeys will be its new director. Claeys is the former director of Evelop, the airline property of Barceló (another Spanish tour operator) who abandoned the company after the merger with Globalia. Apart from himself, Iberostar has also hired many former employees of Evelop for this new airline.
The Spain-Caribbean connection is one of the most competitive markets with six different Spanish airlines contending for it: Iberia, Air Europa, Wamos, Evelop, Plus Ultra and the new World2Fly.
Evelop, the most direct competitor of this new carrier, has been very active during the last months following its restructuration process. Antonio Mota was appointed as new CEO back in June, as the substitute of Claeys, with the promise of turning the airline into a regular carrier. In this new path of the company, Barceló has also announced that it’s both carriers (Evelop, Spain and Orbest, Portugal) will merge under a new brand called Iberojet.
As if all these movements were not enough, the Spanish airline market is still waiting for the outcome of Air Europa´s purchase by Iberia. To accelerate this process, the Spanish government has facilitated the delivery of the rescue fonds to Air Europa. According to the Transportation Secretary, the carrier has already received 475 million euros that mean more than half of the monetary rescue. In the last weeks the Iberia CEO, Javier Sánchez Prieto, stated that the Air Europa purchase was a “patriotic act” for Iberia in order to take Madrid-Barajas airport back to the main European hubs.
At this point, what seems clear is that the Spanish airline scene could be radically different by the 2021 summer with the entrance of World2Fly, the acquisition of Air Europa and the conversion of Evelop into Iberojet and its competition in the regular market.
Arturo joined AirlineGeeks in 2020 as a writer. He is a Spanish Aerospace Engineer who recently completed his undergraduate studies at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He has always been passionate about aviation and, in addition to his engineering knowledge, he is now completing a Master’s Degree in Air Transport Management at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom. Being passionate about journalism, he has been part of several online magazine projects, he will now be covering aviation news from Europe.