It doesn´t bellong to Real Madrid, but to Hola Airlines, and rents it. Sometimes to Iberia, some other to football teams, and other charter flights, essentially to Spanish Iberojet Cruises in their flights to Athens; Venice and Istambul to board the company ships. The titles is simply an advertising campaign. Real Madrid pays for it.

A photo taken by me in my local airport making a Barcelona service.

Uhhh, repairs….that´s a good point I hadn´t considered. Thanks.

Madrid Barajas Airport, despite of being the busiest in the country, and the gateaway to our capital is indeed the worst ever seen and not popular in Spain at all. The flashy new T4, and stravaganza built in a pharaonic way just for Iberia showing off hasn´t resolved the overcapacity problems. Delays, wrong configuration of the new runways, long taxing and a lack of interconection to the capital in terms of public transport and the other terminals. Long walking distances makes MAD an unconfortable terminal. T1, T2, T3 has been built as an excuse. A long succession of buildings with also lots of integral problems and walking distances of almost 3 km.

Ryanair has to get into Madrid for several reasons. Don Quijote Airport, built in the nearby Ciudad Real (private investment) is delayed on and on. And Vueling, ClickAir and Easyjet are just getting in Madrid. So Ryanair needed something big in Madrid. Some destinations are a bit strange, and some others don´t make sense. It seems that they are transition ones before deciding what to do in the domestic market.

Faro and Porto are intelligent ones, since are natural markets of Iberia Regional with the non cost effective CRJ operation, as well as Marseille. Some are a bit risky, I would say Shannon and Paris Beauvais. Let´s remember Madrid is not a touristical destination. So I wonder if Bournemouth,would work. There´s a overcapacity for main Paris Airports, so who would want to fly to Beauvais. The same applies to Eindhoven, unless focusized to the city´s hinderland, and I find intelligent the Scandinavian option. I hope it breaks the SAS Group and IB monopoly. Billund enters in directo competition with Stearling. East Midlands….who knows?. Thounsand of passengers who fly from London doesn´t come from the capital, but the area hinderland. So it´s an intelligent way to cut passengers from going to London.

The key here…..going for the Iberia Regional market. CRJ can´t simply compete with low costs. Things like Lyon, Marseille, Turin, Bourdeux, Strassbourg, Naples, Bologne……these are easy destinations.

Taking pictures, essentially for magazine colaborations

Good decision if routes are international. MAD don´t have as much as low costs as Barcelona, but bad idea if they pretend to get into the domestic market. Some tough competitors…Vueling, Iberia with ClickAir, Air Europa and Spanair are dropping fares, and Ryanair is planning also to get in.

Domestic fares are really cheap now, ground transport is getting better, and high speed is getting to more destinations day by day. There are too many competitors and I wouldn´t recommend Easyjet to fly inside Spain. The times of monopolistic Iberia has gone away.