Latin America in the internationalisation strategy of Iberia, 1946–2000

Since 1946, Iberia, the Spanish flag carrier, was one of the most useful instruments of Spanish foreign policy, focusing, after the Second World War, on connections between Europe and Latin America. Taking advantage of many bilateral agreements between Spain and Latin American countries, Iberia increased its traffic in the region and in the 1950s consolidated an extensive Latin American network. After 1965, its top managers deployed a new policy in Latin America, scaling up its technical cooperation and financial support. In order to cope with the global liberalisation and privatisation of flag carriers, in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s Iberia attempted to further escalate its penetration, acquiring many Latin American airlines, and to impede the access of European competitors in this region, but this strategy failed.