Review of Iberia flight London → Madrid in Economy

Iberia & the Airbus A320-family

Despite being a long-time operator of the Boeing 727/Boeing 757 as well as the McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 and MD-80, Iberia made the choice to switch to Airbus during the 1990s for their next generation of short haul operations, the airline taking their first Airbus A320 family aircraft in 1991, an A320ceo registered EC-FCB.

For over three decades now, the Airbus A320-family has become the backbone of the Iberia European operation out of Madrid Barajas, by the late 2000s all the US built short haul aircraft were gone with the McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 & Boeing 757-200 leaving the airline in 2008.

Iberia has operated all but two of the Airbus A320-family models across the A320ceo & A320neo generations, the two lacking are the A318 and A319-neo. 

Iberia's mainline operation has seen 139 Airbus A320 family in their fleet since 1991, having operated 27x A319, 91x A320 (-ceo & -neo) and 19x A321 (-ceo & -neo), with at least five more planes on order from Airbus and multiple planes having being shared with Vueling or Iberia Express over the years since the formation of International Airlines Group (IAG).

With my OneWorld Sapphire status running out in late-July 2023, and the tracking period ending in June 2023, I opted to fly Iberia on a day out to Madrid Barajas to experience their flagship Terminal 4S VIP Lounge. I had done the BA & AY lounges at London Heathrow & Helsinki Vantaa, and I wanted to complete the set.

Whilst I could have flown out on BA for an earlier arrival or even had a shorter turn around by flying two Iberia wide-body operated flights, I opted to take the 09:15am Iberia IB3163 service to Madrid on this day trip as I hadn't flown an Iberia short haul aircraft in well over six years!!!

I was curious to see how things had changed since my February 2017 flight from Barcelona to Madrid, which was the sole time that I'd flown an Iberia A320-family aircraft at the time, so it was a no brainer on my end.

LHR T5 and BA North Lounge

I travelled from Bournemouth to London Heathrow by National Express coach, a preferred method of mine given the usually cost friendly pricing as well as good schedules. I got to LHR about 3 hours before my flight was due to leave, so I made my tracks over to the Iberia check in area, Iberia had only moved to T5 from T3 on June 1st, having been there during most of 2022. 

I got my boarding passes on paper for a back up and I also enquired about purchasing a last minute upgrade for my Iberia IB3166 flight that evening… without success as the flight was fully booked up front. I wasn't to bothered, but that flight will be covered soon.

After making my way through security via the Fast Track lane, I opted to enjoy Terminal 5A's North Galleries Lounge. The arrivals were happening by the Lounge that day, so it was a good excuse for some plane spotting before my flight.

A solid hearty breakfast from the cooked section got me started for the day. I had a bit of time in the lounge, but filming/photographing was not easy as it was quite busy with the main morning rush of European flights still in full swing!

After grabbing a few more photos of planes landing, I opted to grab a quick bite of porridge and a banana. Given my OneWorld status is going to revert back to OneWorld Ruby very soon, I fancied making the most of my lounge access on this trip, as I will unlikely be making many further visits… at least for now.

Having OneWorld Sapphire status for the last 12 months has been a real privilege and enjoyment, I will miss it and I'm grateful to Finnair Plus for giving me the opportunity to make it happen- though very unintentionally on their part!!!

Iberia IB3163 (LHR-MAD)

Gate A18 was announced for my flight after the plane arrived (I did see it come in) and I walked from one side of T5A all the way to the other. Iberia is slightly different in that OneWorld Emerald and Sapphire status holders are considered GROUP 1 for boarding alongside their Business Class flyers, this makes IB boarding a bit more of a free for all, compare to British Airways who split this same group into Group 1 for Club Europe/OneWorld Emerald and Group 2 is mainly for OneWorld Sapphire.

A new toy was provided by Iberia on this flight, an Airbus A320neo!

Today's A320neo was EC-MXU, delivered to Iberia brand new in May 2018 with capacity to fly 186 passengers on a full cabin. The aircraft is named after Patrulla Águila, the Spanish Air Force display team. The name translates into "Eagle Patrol" in English. The display team fly Spanish built CASA C-101 Aviojet.

Iberia has a similar set up to the British Airways Airbus A320neo fleet. The first rows of the cabin (Rows 1-5) have the older style economy seats which function as Business Class, whilst the rest of the cabin feature the Vueling style seats seen for main bulk of economy class, though on the BA fleet the older style seats go to around Row 14 by comparison, a clear representation that BA gets for Premium travel than Iberia.

We pushed back on time, our taxi was uneventful, but we did have to hold back until some other aircraft departed ahead of us, including an Emirates Airbus A380 and Lufthansa Airbus A321, alongside a pair of Airbus A320s from British Airways.

Despite a pretty full load of passengers on this flight, the Airbus A320neo and its modern engines made easy work of the roll out and take off, powering effortlessly into the skies over Central London before we began to head South for France, the Bay of Biscay and Spain.

Heading south bound, we passed over my home town of Bournemouth and being seated on the left I also got a nice view of the Isle of Wight, it was a lovely summer's day in the UK that Saturday morning.

Now onto the service for this flight, I know Iberia is less favoured flying in Europe for OneWorld travellers who prefer British Airways or Finnair, but Iberia seems to have stepped up in recent times.

I browsed the Gastro buy on board, but didn't require making a purchase, as I preorderd on their online shopping portal before the flight!

I ordered a Continental Breakfast for 9EUR, which came with two warm croissants with butter, jam, a yoghurt, orange juice and a hot drink (I opted for a tea). I also ordered a bonus Do&Co Mouse for an extra 2EUR as an add on. Bringing this substantial breakfast to 11EUR (£9.45p), a pretty good bit of value in my opinion.

Given I paid about £45 for this flight one-way (the return was an extra £27) and then added £9.50p for the breakfast, I paid in effect £56 for an economy class service not too dissimilar to what I'd have gotten in Business Class for an £120 one-way on a return trip. Ok yes I don't get the empty middle seat and I don't get a higher reward in miles, but in terms of value when flying an A320- can you blame me for not going for the £60 upgrade? The A330/A350 flight would have been more justified given the difference in cabin/seat, but on an A320- not so much…

I went to the toilet during the flight, unsurprisingly the Iberia A320neo isn't friendly on lavatory space. Not the worst toilet for space I've ever used, but I know a few people who are bigger than me (in either height or weight) who would struggle in this space!

As the rest of the flight progressed, the pilots announced that we would begin our decent for Madrid just after we passed the coastline of Northern Spain, passing around Bilbao.

Our decent into Madrid Barajas took us on some nice turns around central Spain as we passed around the suburban areas outside of the Spanish capital city, we then lined up for a final approach through some scattered clouds.

As we flew into Madrid Barajas, we passed a maintenance area which contained an interesting mixture of retired or stored aircraft including Iberia Airbus A340-600 (retired in 2020), Iberia McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 (retired as late as 2008) and some British Airways Airbus A320-family including G-EUPJ, the BEA RetroJet.

Once we landed and exited the runway, we taxied a short distance over to Terminal 4S at Madrid Barajas. Iberia send their long-haul and non-Schengen flights over here. So if you are flying on an Iberia or BA flight from the UK, you have an advantage if you connect at T4S, as you don't need to pass another passport check, unlike those coming from within the EU or Domestically within Spain.

We taxied past various wide-bodies as we headed to our gate. Some of the long haul aircraft included a Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-1000, Iberia Airbus A330/A350, Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER, American Airlines Boeing 777/787 and a few LATAM Airlines Boeings. Whilst T4S is dominated by Iberia/OneWorld, some other long haul airlines use this facility including Plus Ultra, Avianca, Emirates and EgyptAir.

We parked up next to an Airbus A330, which dwarfed our Airbus A320neo!!!

I held back from exiting the aircraft as I wanted to grab some final cabin shots once most of the other passengers had left the plane, just because I don't know when I'll next be flying Iberia Airbus A320 soon. Of the three OneWorld Alliance airlines based in Europe- Iberia is the one I've flown least on.

Getting into the spacious area of Terminal 4S, I made my way to the Flight Connections, which was doable as I was flying later the same day and with three hours, I didn't have to leave the Airport and go through security again. This saved a lot of time and made this trip possible.

I went through a quick security check which took less than 2 minutes, and it was off to find the Iberia VIP Lounge at T4S, which I'll cover in the next flight report, coming very soon!!!