The Government of Cantabria will consider penalizing Iberia for what happened last Saturday, when the airline cancelled the flight from Madrid to Santander and the corresponding flight back to the capital to go to Barcelona to pick up Athletic Club Bilbao and take it to Vitoria. This was stated on Tuesday, in response to questions from the press, by the Director General of Tourism, Gustavo Cubero, who indicated that the regional executive is still waiting for the company’s response to the letter it sent to express its “discomfort” with what happened.
In this way, once the Cantabrian Government receives said response, it will evaluate it and, according to the specifications – which are public -, impose the corresponding “sanctions”. “There are a series of sanctions that, if necessary, will be imposed,” said Cubero, who said that the Executive hopes that “what happened will not happen again” because “all tourists want a magnificent service when they come to Cantabria.”
Likewise, he recalled once again that this cancellation of flights, although it is a “very specific” problem, “unfortunately already happened a few years ago.” The Iberia flight that was scheduled to take off from Barajas on August 24 at 7:50 p.m. was canceled, “giving passengers the only option of making the trip by bus”: they arrived in Santander at 3:50 a.m.
Therefore, the return trip has also been canceled, affecting not only passengers returning to Madrid, but also several international routes. In the letter sent this Monday by email to several Iberia representatives, including the director of alliances and strategic agreements of Iberia, Víctor Moneo, the regional government warned that this situation “damages” relations with the company and, also, the “image” that Cantabria has of the latter. In addition, “a response that allows, if possible, to understand this situation” was requested.
