The legendary air shuttle Barcelona-Madrid: the "Puente Aéreo"

Early morning at Madrid airport, a familiar view for many Barcelona-based passengers

If in my previous post I explained how the Spanish airport authority is using replicas of some venerable aircraft to advertise her state-of-the-art facilities and, for this post, we are not leaving Spain yet, because during my recent trip to Madrid I had the chance to experience another of Spanish aviation's legendary institutions: Iberia's "Puente Aéreo" (the Air Shuttle Barcelona-Madrid).

For those who are not aware, Barcelona-Madrid happens to be the air route with most traffic in the Europe, with nearly 3 million passengers per year and around 70 daily frequencies in each direction.

A large share of this traffic went through Iberia's "Puente Aéreo", an air-shuttle that was conceived as a commuter service, where you do not need a previous booking, you just show up at the airport and get on the next available flight. If a plane is full another one departs shortly after, with frequencies at peak hours could rival those of overground public transportation, every 15 minutes or so. The idea is to provide plenty of flexibility and short waiting times at airport.

The "Puente Aéreo" has its own brand identity and fare structure, separate from Iberia's other flights, even when they are doing the same route (around half of Iberia's frequencies on the Barcelona-Madrid route correspond to the "Puente Aéreo" service, with the rest being regular flights that require reservation.

The "Puente Aéreo" has been a sort of second home to generations of businessmen and politicians, ready to pay for all this flexibility and convenience and it is no wonder that, for years, it has been Iberia's most profitable route (in a way, the "Puente Aéreo" is to Iberia what LHR-New York is to British Airways)

However, a number of changes that have affected the competitive environment in which the "Puente Aéreo" was born and developed.

The first one was the liberalization of European skies. As soon as European skies opened up, new entrants Spanair and Air Europa decided to give it a try. The route quickly became a mainstay of Spanair, that now boasts 8 daily frequencies on the route and has branded the service with a similar name, making use of the concept of "air bridge", although for legal reasons it can not call it "Puente Aéreo", so it has "Puente a Barcelona/Pont a Madrid" instead. Next came low cost airlines, with Vueling entering the fray, it has now 11 daily frequencies. Surprisingly Easyjet chose not to compete on the route in spite of having a base in Madrid. Despite all this new competition, Iberia's market share on the Barcelona-Madrid air market remains at around 45%

The completion of the high-speed railway between Barcelona and Madrid has had a stronger effect on the route as it has emerged as a real alternative in terms of frequency and comfort for business travellers, taking half of the market on the Barcelona-Madrid corridor. It has forced Iberia to reduce capacity, maintaining frequencies but deploying smaller aircraft. However, the 600 kilometers between Barcelona and Madrid are really at the edge of what is considered to be a competitive distance range for high-speed railways and the airplane remains competitive, even for origin-destination traffic. Competitive pricing and the high volume of Catalan transit passengers at MAD have helped the airplane hold its ground on this route.

I am wondering what will happen the moment Ryanair starts flying between the two cities, it now has a base in both so it sounds like a logical next step...but I think the other airlines operating the route will feel the pinch, as they rely on a more price-conscious type of travele. My guess is that the "Puente Aereo" itself will be relatively inmune.