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Iberia schedules earliest Europe-US flight for winter with midnight Madrid-Dallas service

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Iberia schedules earliest Europe-US flight for winter with midnight Madrid-Dallas service
Policy
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Marco Sansavini, President | Iberia

In the winter season of 2025-2026, Iberia will operate a passenger flight from Madrid to Dallas/Fort Worth that departs at 00:55, making it the earliest scheduled departure from Europe to the United States during that period. This change in schedule is based on data analyzed using Cirium Diio and reflects adjustments made by northern hemisphere airlines for the IATA winter slot season starting October 26, 2025.

Currently, Iberia’s service from Madrid to Dallas leaves at 16:00. However, beginning October 28, 2025, the departure time will shift to just before 1 a.m., with flights running four times weekly instead of daily as in summer. The aircraft assigned for this route is an Airbus A330-300 with three classes and 292 seats. The early-morning departure time will continue throughout the northern winter season and revert back to a late afternoon schedule on March 29, 2026.

Iberia has operated flights between Madrid and Dallas since 2022. According to US Department of Transportation figures covering November 2024 through February 2025, Iberia’s seat load factor on this route was about ten percentage points lower than its average across its US network—75% compared to higher levels elsewhere—despite reduced frequency in winter. American Airlines remains the dominant carrier at Dallas/Fort Worth, operating about 84% of flights there.

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The early timing is designed to connect passengers arriving from various European cities onto the overnight transatlantic flight. Upon arrival in Dallas at approximately 05:30 local time, travelers can connect onward with numerous American Airlines departures; both carriers codeshare on around sixty destinations across the US. Iberia’s return flight departs Dallas at 13:55 and arrives back in Madrid during peak morning arrival hours for optimal connectivity.

"Like Iberia's overnight flights to South America, its after-midnight departure to Texas will be fed by large numbers of flights arriving from across Europe. It will complement partner American's much less tiring 12:40 departure to the Lone State."

This approach mirrors strategies used by other airlines in past seasons. Turkish Airlines previously scheduled New York JFK and Miami departures as early as 00:40 from Istanbul Airport. For winter 2025-2026 specifically, Turkish Airlines has only one similarly early flight—a Miami-bound Boeing 787-9 leaving Istanbul at 02:10 several days per week.

If this scheduling experiment does not yield improved results or increased market share for Iberia and American Airlines during winter operations, it may not return in subsequent seasons.

"Both Iberia and American must be confident of growing competitiveness and market share to make such a change. If the 00:55 departure time doesn't return in winter 2026/2027, we will know it wasn't worth it."

Organizations Included in this History
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