Iberia and the unions have reached an agreement this Monday to move forward with a voluntary redundancy plan (ERO) for 996 people. These employees will leave the company with 80% of their gross salary in case of early retirement and with 35 days per year worked for those under 60 years old, who will be offered incentivized departures. Out of Iberia's 10,700 employees, the ERO affects 996 people: 106 are pilots, 137 are cabin crew (TCP), and 753 are ground staff, including maintenance technicians and corporate services personnel.

Iberia has proposed a voluntary workforce reduction plan (ERE) that will affect up to 996 employees, including ground staff, pilots, and cabin crew. The airline, part of the IAG group, established a negotiating committee with employee representatives this Thursday, after informing them almost a month ago of its intention to initiate the process. Iberia's management justified the ERE as part of the company's necessary restructuring for the coming years. In this regard, during IAG's results presentation at the end of February, Iberia's Chairman and CEO, Marco Sansavini, indicated that the goal of the plan was not so much to reduce the workforce as to update its profiles. Of the approximately 1,000 employees who will be eligible for the ERE, the vast majority are ground staff, including maintenance and office personnel. The remaining 240 or so will be pilots and cabin crew. With a workforce of over 10,500 employees, the restructuring plan will affect almost 10% of Iberia's staff.

Slow service, delays, and maintenance work on the high-speed rail line between Barcelona and Madrid have forced the train companies operating the service—Renfe, Iryo, and Ouigo—to adjust their schedules. Specifically, the rail operators have agreed with Adif, the company responsible for managing and maintaining the infrastructure, to establish new timetables starting this Thursday, February 5, and extend the journey time between Barcelona and Madrid by approximately 25 minutes, according to sources at the Ministry of Labor. As an alternative that is growing in demand these days, Iberia has decided to cap economy class fares on flights from Barcelona to Madrid at 99 euros until February 19. On the high-speed rail network, as explained this Monday, the last trains running each day on this corridor will be eliminated, as they were arriving within the maintenance window during which Adif is dedicated to inspecting and repairing the infrastructure, the source of the current problems.

The rail chaos that Catalonia has been experiencing for the past week is worsening. The closure of the Rubí tunnel has disrupted freight traffic leaving the Port of Barcelona bound for France. After detecting a crack in the tunnel's return section, the port has had to completely halt traffic since Monday. The disruption in Rubí, which has persisted for days, prevents trains from Barcelona and southern Catalonia from reaching the rest of the continent, as well as preventing trains from arriving from France.

2026 begins with new appointments at Catalan companies, including two familiar faces from Spanish politics. Former minister and former Speaker of the Congress Meritxell Batet joins the board of Sateliot, and former regional minister Àngels Chacón will head LLYC's Barcelona office. AstraZeneca's subsidiary in Spain and Iberia also starts the year with the appointment of female executives.

Iberia has canceled all its commercial flights to Venezuela starting this Saturday – the first flight was scheduled for Monday – following a warning issued yesterday by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA advises civil aircraft operators to exercise extreme caution due to the security situation and increased military activity in and around the Caribbean country. The area deemed unsafe by the U.S. federal agency is called Maiquetía and is a flight information region defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) that essentially encompasses Venezuelan airspace. This warning to airlines coincides with Washington's military deployment in the area, aimed at pressuring the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro. In fact, the Trump administration has recently considered several options for a possible military intervention in Venezuela, including direct attacks on military units protecting President Nicolás Maduro and measures to seize control of the country's oil fields, according to several U.S. officials.

The agreement to expand El Prat Airport will not, a priori, change Iberia's long-standing strategy: to grow at Barajas Airport by expanding long-haul routes, primarily in Latin America, to turn it into a "large" airport. hub"that can compete with the major European airports. The airline has just presented its Flight Plan 2030, a document in which this commitment remains the backbone. On the contrary, it leaves the objective of giving wings to the Catalan airport in the hands of Level—the low-cost brand of the Spanish-British group IAG, which also includes Iberia and Vueling.

Vueling will cancel the three daily frequencies that it still operated from the air bridge, the historic route that links Barcelona and Madrid, starting on March 29. As has been advanced The Vanguard and the ARA has been able to confirm, the airline has reordered its priorities for the summer and will do without this destination to focus on others. For some time now, the train connection, using high speed, has defeated the plane as the preferred option to travel between the Catalan and Spanish capital. Thus, the last flight of the low cost The new service to connect Barcelona and Madrid will leave El Prat airport at the end of next month. Until now, Vueling operated three daily flights and 21 weekly flights on that route.

The European Commission announced Tuesday that it has opened an in-depth investigation to examine Iberia's takeover of Air Europa over suspicions that the deal could reduce competition on 70 domestic and international routes to and from Spain. "We will carefully examine whether the proposed transaction would adversely affect competition on domestic routes, which could lead to higher prices and lower quality for travelers", said the vice president for competition of the EU executive, Margrethe Vestager.