Iberia Express is a proposed new budget airline for the Iberia - British Airways group, which would offer low cost flights from Madrid, Barajas Airport. The hope is that the airline will be better placed to compete with EasyJet and Ryanair. It will start with 4 planes in summer 2012 and aims to have 13 aircraft by the end of the year.
Iberia Airline's pilots' association claims that the launch of Iberia Express breaks agreements signed during the BA-Iberia merger, as Iberia Express will hire pilots and cabin crew on lower salaries and with worse terms of service than Iberia, and over time Iberia Express will take over routes operated by Iberia.