World2Fly will be the next step of the Spanish touristic company Iberostar to connect Spain and the Caribbean. This tour operator seeks to expand its offering in the Caribbean market by connecting its destinations there with its airline. World2Fly expects to take off in spring 2021, roughly in time for the start of the summer flight schedule.
According to Gabriel Subías, head of Iberostar subsidiary World 2 Meet, the Caribbean would be the initial target region. He specifically mentioned the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba as planned destinations. The company has already secured a new Airbus A350 and is about to sign a deal for a second one.
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.
As a hotel group, Iberostar has the advantage of being able to sell complete travel packages including flights in its own jets and overnight stays in its own hotel. By setting up an airline, you make yourself more independent of airline partners.
