Spanish flag-carrier Iberia confirmed on 14 November that it will double the number of Brazilian gateways it serves next year, inaugurating thrice-weekly Madrid–Recife flights on 13 December 2025 and Madrid–Fortaleza on 19 January 2026.
The strategy hinges on Iberia’s new Airbus A321XLR fleet, whose longer range and 30 % lower fuel burn per seat make thin, secondary city-pairs viable year-round. Recife and Fortaleza—fast-growing hubs for renewable-energy, agritech and shared-services industries—previously required European travellers to connect in São Paulo or Rio, adding four to six hours. Iberia projects the two routes, plus an up-gauge to daily service on Madrid–Rio, will lift its Brazil capacity by roughly 72 000 seats in the January–June window—a 25 % jump versus 2025.
![Iberia to launch Madrid–Recife and Madrid–Fortaleza, boosting Brazil seat capacity by 25 %]()
For corporate mobility managers, the move creates new one-stop options across Iberia’s Oneworld network and its LATAM and Gol partnerships, enabling same-day connections to 50 Brazilian domestic cities. The announcement also dovetails with Brazil’s expanded Visit Visa (VIVIS) rules, which now allow 90-day technical assignments without a work permit—handy for European engineers rotating into the northeast’s wind-farm build-outs.
Travel buyers should note that Iberia is slated to join the NDC Exchange in Q1 2026, enabling dynamic bundles that could combine corporate fares with onward LATAM sectors and pre-cleared visa facilitation. Early-bird business-class fares loaded on 14 November were 12 % below TAP’s northeast-Brazil services, indicating aggressive market-share ambitions.
The strategy hinges on Iberia’s new Airbus A321XLR fleet, whose longer range and 30 % lower fuel burn per seat make thin, secondary city-pairs viable year-round. Recife and Fortaleza—fast-growing hubs for renewable-energy, agritech and shared-services industries—previously required European travellers to connect in São Paulo or Rio, adding four to six hours. Iberia projects the two routes, plus an up-gauge to daily service on Madrid–Rio, will lift its Brazil capacity by roughly 72 000 seats in the January–June window—a 25 % jump versus 2025.
For corporate mobility managers, the move creates new one-stop options across Iberia’s Oneworld network and its LATAM and Gol partnerships, enabling same-day connections to 50 Brazilian domestic cities. The announcement also dovetails with Brazil’s expanded Visit Visa (VIVIS) rules, which now allow 90-day technical assignments without a work permit—handy for European engineers rotating into the northeast’s wind-farm build-outs.
Travel buyers should note that Iberia is slated to join the NDC Exchange in Q1 2026, enabling dynamic bundles that could combine corporate fares with onward LATAM sectors and pre-cleared visa facilitation. Early-bird business-class fares loaded on 14 November were 12 % below TAP’s northeast-Brazil services, indicating aggressive market-share ambitions.
