IAG, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to purchase 18 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, plus 18 options.

This move comes after speculation over whether an order for future long-haul aircraft to equip British Airways would go with Boeing or Airbus.

In the same deal, IAG agreed terms and slots that would allow it to also equip Iberia with A350s – a decision it will make when Iberia’s profitability has improved.

The A350 will operate alongside the Airbus A380 in British Airways‘ long haul fleet, in addition to the Boeing 747-400 and 787.

Iberia has taken delivery of its first Airbus A330 aircraft.

The aircraft, EC-LUB – a -300 model – arrived at the airline’s Madrid Barajas hub today under a traditional water cannon salute.

This is one of eight A330s Iberia has on order, and will be used on international and some European flights from Madrid. The aircraft feature a new interior cabin.

Continuing my look at what aviation attractions you can find close by popular airports for spotting, in this post I’m looking at Palma Airport on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

Palma is one of Europe’s busiest holiday airports, packed full of leisure and low cost airlines. Given its near constant sun, it’s a favourite amongst spotters and photographers.

However, also on the island is another small airport worth visiting.

Son Bonet Aerodrome is the original airport for Palma de Mallorca, opening in the 1920s. It grew as a mixed military and civil airport, until it could expand no further and the current airport took over in the late 1950s.

Son Bonet today is used for general aviation, flight training, and some executive flights. It is easy to get to, only around five miles from the main airport, and even closer to the city.

At its main entrance, a preserved Douglas DC-3, EC-EJB, stands guard. In the north west corner of the airfield, a group of Antonov An-2 aircraft have been stored for some time. The aerodrome has a single runway, with all ramps and hangars on the north side of the runway.

Spotting at the aerodrome is possible from the roads around the perimeter, but airside access is rarely granted.

Emirates are going to bring their Airbus A380 super jumbos to Barcelona on their daily link to Dubai twice in the new year, replacing the usual Boeing 777-300.

The flights will take place on 24th February 2013, and 1st March 2013.

Booking is open for both of these flights if you wish to step aboard!

Volotea, the new Spanish low-cost carrier, has announced its third base will be Palermo in Italy.

The new base will commence from March 2013, and will see two Boeing 717 aircraft based there. There will also be 13 new routes added from the airport – both domestic and international. These include:

Ancona
Bordeaux
Florence
Genoa
Ibiza
Nantes
Naples
Olbia
Palma de Mallorca
Santorini
Trieste
Venice
Verona

In the airline’s first year of operations, it has carried over half a million passengers and create 230 jobs; it will create a further 50 with its new base in Palermo.

Speaking in Palermo, Carlos Munoz, founder and CEO of Volotea, said:
“The decision to open our third European base could only lie with Palermo, a city in which we believed and invested a lot since the beginning of our operations.

“Palermo has given us excellent results right from the start, as evidenced by the more than 65,000 passengers in the airport in just six months of activity, which has contributed to its status as one of the most popular of our extensive network.”

Vueling has announced its intention to grow its hub at Barcelona into Europe’s biggest, emulating those seen in the Middle East, and overtaking the existing busy European hub airport of Frankfurt.

The low-cost airline will increase the number of destinations it serves from Barcelona to 100 in 2013, as it adds 28 more routes, including destinations such as London Gatwick, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf from March.

This comes on the back of Vueling adding 45 new destinations from Barcelona over the past two years. This has put the airport in second place in Europe in terms of the number of destinations served, behind Frankfurt. But it hopes to turn Barcelona into the biggest hub in Europe as it continues expanding and adding more choice of destinations.

By doing this, Vueling is increasing the number of connecting passengers at the airport, and also working at increasing the number of business passengers it carries to around 50% of all passengers.

The airline’s CEO, Alex Cruz, said he hoped to be seen as a short/medium-haul version of Qatar Airways with its base at Barcelona.

MallorcAviation.net is a great photographic site covering aircraft movements at Palma de Mallorca, in Spain’s Balearic Islands.

I came across the site after working with Toni Marimon recently. He runs the site with some other people, and they have been working hard at adding the collection of Pedro de la Cruz, who has literally thousands of negatives dating back to the 1960s.

Palma has been a very popular and busy holiday airport since the 1960s. It has always been frequented by the various charter and low cost airlines from around Europe. So you can see many great pictures from days and airlines gone by on the site.

It’s also available in English and Spanish.

Check out the site here: http://mallorcaviation.net/

I just received copies of the November 2012 issue of Airliner World. In it is my article on Aviaco – a classic Spanish airline from days gone by.

Aviaco was a pioneer of domestic and charter travel in Spain, starting in the 1960s and eventually being completely merged into Iberia in 1999. You may remember its DC-8s, DC-9′s and F-27s, and you may have flown with them if you went on a charter holiday to Spain from the UK or Germany in the 1980s and 90s.

Other articles in this issue of Airliner World include Airbus Market Forecast, LOT Polish Airlines, Victorville Overview, and the end of bmibaby.

You can buy the issue now in good newsagents, or online here. Let me know what you think of the Aviaco article.

Iberia, the Spanish national airline, has won “the best passenger assistance initiative” award at the Future Travel Experiences event in Vancouver.

This is in recognition for Iberia‘s Agora project at Madrid’s Terminal 4 – the main hub for the airline, and one of the most modern airport terminals in Europe.

The Agora project aims to improve flight punctuality and customer experience, making Terminal 4 one of the most efficient and user-friendly airport terminals. There’s a video about the project (in Spanish) here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoobL0dpqFs

Part of the improvements brought about by Iberia sees all pursers carry iPads loaded with passenger information to help the airline serve them better. Iberia’s Deputy Manager for Coordination and Hub, Dimitris Bountolos, said: “It was very exciting. We have begun to inspire others and this is a great responsibility.”

 A good friend of mine, Andrew Solum, and British Airways‘ Head of UK & Ireland Sales, Richard Tams, are about to embark upon a fantastic journey in the hope of raising money for charity.

Their target is to raise £20,000 for the Comic Relief Flying Start charity, supported by British Airways and aimed at improving the lives of countless children every year.

Their challenge? Well, they’ve got to get around the world in seven days, starting in New York on 15th September, and using every Oneworld airline partner.

The journey will start with American Airlines from New York to Chicago then on to the Tokyo Narita international hub of Japan Airlines.

The following day they will fly with Japan Airlines from Tokyo to the Hong Kong home of Cathay Pacific and on September 17 undertake a three-flight schedule from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur with Cathay Pacific, Kuala Lumpur to Singapore with Malaysia Airlines, which is on track to join oneworld at the turn of the year. They will then travel on from Singapore to London Heathrow with Qantas arriving early on September 18.

British Airways will carry them on to Amman, base of Royal Jordanian.

On September 19 they will fly from Amman to Frankfurt with Royal Jordanian, then with airberlin to Germany’s capital city.

On September 20, they will take to the air again with airberlin to Frankfurt, then off with LAN to Madrid. From its base at the Spanish capital, Iberia will then carry them to the Moscow hub of S7, landing early on September 21, before a swift transfer to S7 for a flight to St. Petersburg.

The following day (September 22) they will begin the last leg of their journey heading with Finnair from St Petersburg to its own Helsinki home then on to Heathrow to connect on to their final flight, a British Airways jet from London to New York arriving at 8.55pm local time.

In total they will cover just over 30,000 miles, flying along the way on every oneworld member airline and via 11 of the alliance’s major hubs.

Tams said: “I’ve done a lot of flying in my time at British Airways, but never so many destinations in such a short period. We’ll be going through 16 airports, flying on ten different aircraft types and visiting 11 countries on 12 airlines. We won’t even have time to stop and enjoy the views!

Mr Solum, a management consultant and oneworld Emerald top tier frequent flyer, said “it will be tough going on standby staff tickets with no guarantee where we’ll be seated, but at the end of the day, every penny we raise will make a difference to a child – and that is really our driving force for this challenge.”

Tams added “We’re enormously grateful to our oneworld partners for supporting our challenge – it’s a great reflection of the reach the alliance has. I’d also like to thank our hotel partners in this, the Global Hotel Alliance, Starwood and Marriott.”

“The travel trade have also already been really supportive and we’ve already hit £8,000+ of our target but we really want to reach at least £20,000 so we’re asking everyone to dig deep and help us out. Anyone can pledge money at:

http://donate.ba-flyingstart.com/funraiser/roundtheoneworld.”

The money raised will all go directly to Flying Start, the global charity partnership between British Airways and Comic Relief UK. It will help to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children living in the UK and in some of the poorest countries across the world. The aim of the charity is to help create lasting change by giving children and their families the chance to start supporting themselves.

The intrepid travellers will be blogging their adventures and experiences, so stay tuned for further details!