Top 5: Iberia's Leading US Routes By Available Seat Miles (2024)

Only a few days ago, Iberia - the flag carrier of Spain - celebrated its seventieth anniversary of its flights to New York. On the occasion, a cabin crew member of Iberia, Andrés Iwasaki, performed Frank Sinatra’s song “New York, New York” on the Airbus A350 operated by the carrier.

The New York - Madrid route is one of the more popular routes for the carrier, as even as far back as 1979, 2.2 million passengers had taken Iberia to fly this route. Iberia operates to seven different destinations in the US. But which are the leading routes of this Spanish carrier in terms of the available seat miles (ASMs)? Let’s find out.

5 Dallas - Madrid

This route has the second-highest seats per departure

Dallas is home to two lovely airports - one of them being the Dallas/ Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) while the other being the Dallas Love Field (DAL). Iberia operates from the second-biggest airport by physical size in Europe, Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD), to DFW, covering nearly 5000 miles.

With 30 operations from MAD to DFW (and an identical number of operations from DFW to MAD), this route is the fifth-leading route of Iberia to the US by ASMs. According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Iberia is offering 9,330 seats on the Airbus A330s it is operating on this route.

Photo:Robson90 | Shutterstock

American Airlines is Iberia’s competitor along the route, as these two carriers are the only ones offering direct flights. AA is operating its Boeing 777-200 on the DFW-MAD route. Both of these carriers offer economy, premium economy, and business class flights on this route. The option of a first-class flight is not available on direct flights.

4 Los Angeles - Barcelona

This route has the lowest number of seats (per departure) on this list

Iberia operates a nearly 6,000-mile route between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the primary airport in Los Angeles, and the second-largest airport in Spain, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona–El Prat Airport (BCN).

Photo: Iberia

Despite having one more operation each way than the DFW-MAD route, the number of available seats for passengers on the LAX-BCN route is slightly lower. Iberia has no competitors offering direct flights from LAX to BCN. The carrier operates an Airbus A330-200 on this route, and you can find only economy- and business-class fares.

Departure times for Iberia’s daily operations from Los Angeles to Barcelona vary between 19:30 and 21:50, with the earliest flight departing at 19:30 and the last flight departing at 21:50. On the other hand, Iberia’s earliest flight to LAX from BCN departs at 13:35, while the last flight departs at 15:00.

3 Los Angeles - Madrid

This daily operated route has the highest seats per departure

The number of operations between Iberia’s LAX-BCN and the MAD-LAX routes is identical. The seats per departure on the Los Angeles—Madrid route are the highest on this list, while the ASMs are the third highest.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

Iberia operates its Airbus A350-900 on this route. Furthermore, Iberia is the sole carrier offering a direct flight between LAX and MAD. Iberia takes nearly twelve hours to complete this journey, spanning 5,846 miles.

Plenty of other carriers operate one-stop flights between LAX and MAD. The fastest of these are, at the minimum, nearly 3 hours longer than Iberia’s direct flights. Here are a few carriers offering a one-stop flight on the LAX-MAD route:

• Air France with a stopover in Paris. Air France operates the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A320 on this route.
• Finnair with a stopover in Helsinki. Finnair operates its Airbus A321 and Airbus A350 on this route.

2 New York - Madrid

In 2024, Iberia has 435,000 seats on this route, which the carrier started to operate in 1954

Photo: Adam Moreira | Wikimedia Commons

John F. Kennedy Airport, which was renamed from its original name of Idlewild, features the second-leading route of Iberia’s US routes by available seat miles. The operations on this route began in 1954. Vyte Klisauskaite, a journalist for Simple Flying, who covered the history of operations on this route, reported:

“First flights were operated by the airline's fleet of Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, which had the capacity to seat up to 74 passengers: 19 in first class and 55 in economy cabin. Interestingly, the first flight on August 3, 1954, did not go as planned and lasted 15 hours because of bad weather conditions. Nevertheless, it was the Super Constellation that allowed the carrier to launch transatlantic journeys.

Iberia currently competes with Air Europa, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines for direct flights on this route. Carriers operating directly between JFK and MAD operate on Airbus A330-200, A330-900neo, A350, Boeing 767, Boeing 777, and Boeing 787.

1 Madrid - Miami

Apart from the highest ASMs, the seats offered on this route are also the highest on the list

With more than 19,000 seats and more than 85,000 ASMs, Iberia’s flights between MAD and Miami International Airport (MIA) are the carrier’s leading US route by ASMs. Iberia has twice daily operations from MIA to MAD (and an identical number on the way back) in August. The Spanish carrier completes this 4,424-mile journey on the Airbus A330s it operates.

Photo:JetKat | Shutterstock

Here are the other airlines competing for direct flights on this route:

• American Airlines operates daily flights from MAD to MIA at 10:00 on its Boeing 777-200. The journey is approximately 3 hours long. AA also offers a one-stop flight from MAD to MIA with a stopover at JFK. The carrier also has thrice-daily flights from MAD to MIA via Philadephia International Airport (PHL).
• Air Europa operates daily flights from MAD to MIA on its Boeing 787-9s. The journey is three hours and thirty minutes long.