Air Nostrum has confirmed that it is to cancel routes from Madrid to both Manchester and Glasgow, both of which were launched late last year (click here for more information).
The move was originally flagged by industry website airlineroute.net, and the Air Nostrum press office has now confirmed that the flights are being cut due to "lack of demand".
The carrier currently operates the routes as a regional franchise partner of Iberia, but services to Glasgow will cease on August 30, and those to Manchester will stop on September 14.
The news will be a blow to Iberia's sister airline BA, and parent company IAG, which will have hoped to compete with the likes of Air France, Lufthansa, KLM and Swiss on connecting traffic via the UK regions, particularly to Latin American destinations where Iberia has a strong presence.
There are currently no other direct scheduled flights between Glasgow and Madrid, while Easyjet operates flights between Manchester and the Spanish capital.
However Easyjet has announced that it is to drop its base at Madrid from the start of the winter season, with a resulting reduction of capacity to and from Madrid by around 20 per cent in the next financial year (see online news June 21).
For more information visit iberia.com, airnostrum.es.
Report by Mark Caswell
