Iberia and Iberia Express sealed an open-ended labor and operations framework with SEPLA on September 25, 2026, unlocking eight additional short- and medium-haul aircraft for Madrid between 2028 and 2030 on top of Flight Plan 2030 commitments.
Europa Press and Aviacionline report that the agreement was ratified by both pilot groups after Iberia Express crews backed it strongly and about 60 percent of mainline Iberia pilots voted in favor. Iberia chairman and CEO Marco Sansavini and Iberia Express CEO Carlos Gómez Suárez signed alongside SEPLA section heads Juan Polo and Ignacio Spiteri. The framework has no expiry date and is meant to stabilize how growth is shared between the mainline and the low-cost feeder at Madrid-Barajas for years ahead.
The eight extra aircraft sit outside the jets already scheduled under Iberia’s broader Flight Plan 2030 program. Reporting on the vote says six of the additional short- and medium-haul frames are earmarked for Iberia Express and two for mainline Iberia, shifting the historic fleet-share balance and ending a two-year freeze on Express growth that followed an earlier failed package under the old annex rules that required matching mainline inductions.
Headcount follows the metal. The companies say the expansion will create 240 direct jobs—80 pilots and 160 cabin crew—and enable 105 captain promotions, with 69 at Iberia and 36 at Iberia Express. That promotion pipeline was a central sweetener for mainline crews who had blocked Express growth under the old annex that tied Express additions to matching mainline inductions in lockstep year after year.
For IAG the practical prize is Madrid hub feed. Iberia Express exists to move connecting traffic onto Iberia and other group long-haul flights at competitive unit cost. Freezing Express growth left the hub short of short-haul spokes just as competitors kept adding European frequencies into Spain. An indefinite framework that lets Express take most of an eight-aircraft tranche restores that feeder logic without forcing a crisis vote every scheduling season inside the pilot body.
The announcement does not name aircraft types for the eight frames. Iberia’s short- and medium-haul fleet is Airbus A320-family territory, and Express operates in that same lane, but firm type mixes and exact delivery-year splits beyond the 2028–2030 window were not in the September 25 statements released after the signing ceremony. What is firm is the headcount commitment, the captain promotions, and the political clearance inside the pilot body that had blocked similar plans before.
Sansavini called the deal essential to Madrid’s competitiveness and long-term social stability for Iberia people. Gómez Suárez framed it as a fifteenth-anniversary foundation for Express to plan with Iberia in close coordination as the subsidiary approaches that milestone. For passengers the near-term schedule will not change overnight because the metal arrives later in the decade. The September vote is the gate that makes those later deliveries socially and contractually deliverable at the Madrid hub this decade for operators and regulators alike for operators and regulators alike for operators and regulators alike for operators and regulators alike.
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