Iberia to close Uruguay office

Spanish airline Iberia will shut down its office in Uruguay next September and is currently figuring out ways to continue marketing its flights from Montevideo in an effort to implement some cost-cutting strategies in that country, Julio Pino, general manager of the carrier’s affiliate office there, explained.

Company execs in the Uruguayan capital are right now juggling marketing ways that could render cost effective. Among the possibilities, officials are considering the sale of Montevideo tickets through a general manager’s office set up in a third country, more likely in Argentina or Chile.

Another option is to sell the plane tickets through the One World alliance in which Iberia is a full-time member together with other seven airlines, two of them operating in Montevideo: Lan Chile and American Airlines.

Iberia is currently serving daily flights to Spain. The Montevideo-Buenos Aires connection, though, is guaranteed by American Falcon, its Argentine association.