Summary
- Air Europa faces Boeing delivery delays which has meant it will use an Iberojet A330-900neo on its Madrid to New York route.
- The A330 has less business class capacity compared to the Air Europa Boeign 787-9.
- Air Europa previously used wet-leased aircraft this year on the JFK route due to maintenance issues with its long-haul fleet.
Air Europa
has scheduled a wet-leased Airbus
A330-900 to operate on its flights between Madrid Barajas Airport
(MAD) and New York JFK Airport
(JFK) as it continues to face issues with its long-haul fleet. According to Preferente, the reason behind the use of a non-Air Europa aircraft is because of 
Boeing
delivery delays, which have placed a strain on the airline’s overall operation.
Air Europa
- IATA/ICAO Code
-
UX/AEA
- Year Founded
-
1986
- CEO
-
Juan José Hidalgo
Iberojet on the Madrid to New York sector
Globalia-owned Air Europa will deploy Iberojet’s Airbus A330-900neo on its flights to JFK. According to the agreement, the Airbus will be deployed between September 19 and October 31. Here are the key details of the agreement:
- Frequency: Flights will operate five times a week
- Nature: This is an Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI) contract
- Unsurprising: Over the last half a year, Air Europa has employed other airlines to carry out its operation to New York
In a statement published on social media, IberoJet confirmed:
“Our Charter/ACMI Commercial Department has finalized a new leasing agreement with Air Europa, effective from September 19 to October 31. Our dual-class Airbus A330-900Neo (CS-TCF) will operate flights five days a week between Madrid and New York (JFK). This operation underscores our strategic decision to integrate this aircraft into our fleet and further establishes our position as a reference in these types of operations.”
A reduction in premium capacity
According to ch-aviation data, Iberojet’s A330neos are registered in Portugal. It has two in total. The one that will be used on services for Air Europa is just five years old. When comparing the seat capacity between Air Europa’s 787-9, which is normally deployed on the MAD-JFK sector, and the Iberojet widebody, there is a clear reduction in capacity.
|
Airline |
Aircraft |
Economy seats |
Business class seats |
Total seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Air Europa |
Boeing 787-9 |
303 |
30 |
333 |
|
Iberojet |
Airbus A330-900 |
353 |
18 |
371 |
Air Europa features a denser premium cabin, particularly important for higher-paying customers and of course the fairly significant number of business travelers flying between the two important economic hubs.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
Spain is an important export market for the United States, with goods and services to the European country valued at more than $35 billion in 2022. US investment in Spain in 2022 stood at roughly the same figure, while vice versa, the European country represented the 11th largest investor in the US.
Current operation from MAD to JFK
Air Europa has been deploying leased capacity on this route for a few months now. In May, it began using a Wamos Air Airbus A330 on the service as a result of technical/maintenance-related difficulties. At around the same time, Iberojet was called upon to service Air Europa flights between Madrid and Havana, per Preferente. One such difficulty could be related to the incident we reported on in April during which a 787 was damaged at Santo Domingo Airport although the connection between the two issues is unconfirmed.
After Wamos Air
an agreement was signed with Privilege Style to use its Airbus A330-200. Intiially these were deployed every so often on the route to New York, but by July had been operating daily on the sector.
- Aircraft registration: EC-NZJ
- Age: 11.5 years old
- Seat layout: 275 total of which 255 are in economy and 20 are in business
The final flight with the Privilege Style A330 was on September 1, as Air Europa resumed service with its own fleet.
Photo: Privilege Style
Air Europa seems not to have turned to Iberojet for maintenance-related reasons. Flightradar24 data shows that all of the Boeing 787-9s in its fleet are presently in service.
Air Europa did not immediately respond to Simple Flying’s request for a comment.