The Globalia group, which notably owns Air Europa or the hotel company BeLive Hotels, participated in the FITUR 2023 exhibition. Juan José Hidalgo, the president of Globalia, told our Spanish colleague Tourinews the growth plans and the merger with Iberia which is complex.
Air Europa continues to progress
“Last year, we increased the fleet by 12 aircraft. And this year, we are going to grow again in this direction, by about 10 or 12 planes”. He believes in the merger with Iberia but he admits that it is complicated. There are currently tense discussions.
The Spanish government gets involved
The Spanish government tried to encourage Air Europa and Iberia to finalize a deal. He wants them to conclude long-standing talks on the sale of the airline to Iberia (IAG group). A meeting would have taken place with their respective general managers Jesús Nuño de la Rosa and Javier Sánchez-Prieto, informed sources familiar with the matter the digital newspaper El Confidencial. The meeting was led by Manuel de la Rocha, Secretary General for Economic Affairs of the Government, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Transport Isabel Pardo de Vera,
A strategic rapprochement for Spain
Government officials stressed that the transaction is considered strategic for the country, as well as for the Madrid Barajas hub, as it would serve to boost routes not only to Latin America and the United States, but also to the Middle East and Asia – markets that are currently in the hands of competitors of the two Spanish carriers.
The president of Globalia does not seem to like the English…
According to El Confidencial, Juan José Hidalgo, president and founder of Air Europa, has constantly repeated in private circles that “I will never sell my airline to the English, let alone at the price they offer me”. IAG’s most recent offer, from January 2021, is €500 million ($540 million).
Iberia would have presented a new agreement
The objective would be to seal an agreement in February. They added that the government wanted to see a deal partly because it feared a foreign group might end up buying Air Europa.
