Iberworld
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| Founded | 1998 (as Iberworld) | ||||||
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| Commenced operations | 11 April 1998 | ||||||
| Ceased operations | 5 May 2013 | ||||||
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| Fleet size | 9 | ||||||
| Destinations | 89 (as of 4 November 2009) | ||||||
| Parent company | Orizonia Group | ||||||
| Headquarters | Palma de Mallorca, Spain | ||||||
| Key people | Gabriel Subias Cano (CEO) | ||||||
| Website | http://www.orbest.com/ | ||||||
Orbest Orizonia Airlines, S.A., formerly Iberworld Airlines, S.A., was an airline with its head office in the Edificio Orizionia Corporación in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. It operated regular and charter flights to destinations in Europe and the Caribbean, scheduled domestic services, and scheduled international services to Havana. In its 14-year history, Orbest Orizonia flew to four continents and operated routes to over 30 countries. Its main base was Palma de Mallorca Airport. Orbest Orizonia was the air division of the Orizonia Group, Spain's third largest tour operator.
Following the failure of BCM Airlines, Iberworld was founded by Iberostar, a Spanish tourist company, who wholly owned the new airline. Grupo Iberostar already owned a tour operator, Holiday resorts and hotels, and saw that buying BCM would be a quick way to acquire an airline. The airline was established in 1998 and started operations on 11 April 1998 with a single Lockheed L-1011 Tristar leased from Classic Airways of the United Kingdom. The L-1011 was used on routes from Palma de Mallorca and Málaga to London. The next day, on 12 April 1998, the first Airbus A320-200 was delivered and it started services to complement the Tristar. By 5 May, a second A320-200 had been delivered and as the end of spring approached, they returned the L-1011 to Classic Airways. By the end of the year, however, Iberworld received two new A320 aircraft from Airbus, allowing them to make a 23.6 million Euro profit in eight months from carrying over 263,000 passengers.
In February 1999, the airline took delivery of their first wide-body aircraft – an Airbus A310 – 300 from Transavia. Later that year, it received its fifth A320 and placed an order for two more of the type. 1999 was Iberworld's first full year of flying and passenger figures rose to over one million, the growth being so considerable due to the gap in the market left by Viva Air (which stopped operations in March 1999). This airline closure allowed Iberworld to open new routes to Caribbean. In 2000, Iberworld's growth was more modest, with passenger figures rising to 1.1 million with no new aircraft arriving. Iberworld then placed their first order for a new wide-body in July 2001, an Airbus A330-200 to serve its long-haul destinations. Later that same year, the two A320s on order arrived; however, due to the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, passenger numbers remained around the same as the previous year.
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