Spanish airline Iberia has announced an ambitious international expansion as part of its 2030 Flight Plan, with an investment of €6 billion. Monterrey, Nuevo León, is one of the new key destinations included in this strategy.
The carrier’s expansion includes a direct flight between Monterrey and Madrid, becoming Iberia’s second nonstop destination in Mexico, in addition to Mexico City International Airport (AICM).
With its new route to Monterrey from Madrid, Iberia will compete with Aeroméxico, currently the only operator of this air link. It also reopens Iberia’s roster of destinations that are not capitals of large Latin American countries; in December, the airline will also resume its direct route between Cali, Colombia, and Madrid with three weekly flights.
The connections between Madrid and Mexico are enhanced by a direct link to a major holiday destination in Mexico: Cancún, via Air Europa, World2Fly and Iberojet.
According to the company, the expansion seeks to contribute to the development of Madrid’s Barajas Airport as a competitive intercontinental hub among its European counterparts. In addition to Monterrey, Iberia’s new flights include direct routes between Madrid and Toronto (Canada), Philadelphia (U.S.), Recife and Fortaleza (Brazil), and Orlando (U.S.), among others.
“Madrid is the new Miami.”
That’s the crux behind @Iberia‘s Flight Plan 2030, an ambitious business plan that will see it add dozens of new long-haul planes and destinations in the Americas from its Madrid hub in the next few years. https://t.co/axcxyfPgcv pic.twitter.com/2ty7fc8lye
— Bsky: byerussell.com (@ByERussell) June 23, 2025
“Thanks to Iberia’s profound transformation over the last decade and the efforts of all our people, we are achieving results that allow us to look to the future,” Iberia’s President and CEO Marco Sansavini said.
Monterrey is currently also connected to Europe via Paris. Both Aeroméxico and Air France offer either direct routes or flights with stopovers to the French capital.
Monterrey International Airport is one of Mexico’s main air hubs and the most important in the northern part of the country. In 2024, the airport surpassed one million international passengers in a year for the first time, reaching 1.17 million travelers. This represented an increase of 18.8% compared to 2023.
With reports from Reportur, Aviación Online and Publimetro
