, also known as '''Iberia Regional''', is a
Regional Airline based in
Valencia ,
Spain , operating as an
Iberia regional partner and an affiliate member of the
Oneworld airline alliance. It operates an extensive network of 91 domestic and international routes to 51 destinations, as well as charter flights. Its main base is
Valencia Airport , with hubs at
Barcelona International Airport and
Madrid Barajas International Airport 1.
The airline was established in
1994 and started operations in December 1994. It was founded as Lineas Aereas del Mediterraneo/Air Nostrum in Valencia. In May
1997 Air Nostrum signed an agreement with Iberia to become an Iberia franchise. It acquired Iberia subsidiary Binter Mediterraneo and absorbed its operations. Following Iberia's merger with
Aviaco in
1999 additional domestic and international services were taken over by Air Nostrum. It acquired Dutch airline
Denim Air in
1999 , but disposed of any interest in the company in
2002 . Air Nostrum is owned by Nefinsa (74.8%), Caja Duero (22.2%) and Air Nostrum management (3%) and has 2,040 employees (at March
2007 ).
Air Nostrum operates the following services (at
January 2006 ):
- Domestic scheduled destinations: Albacete , Alicante , Almería , Asturias , Badajoz , Barcelona , Bilbao , Granada , Ibiza , La Coruña , Las Palmas , León , Logroño , Madrid , Málaga , Melilla , Menorca , Murcia , Palma De Mallorca , Pamplona , Reus , San Sebastian , Santander , Santiago De Compostela , Seville , Tenerife , Valencia , Valladolid , Vigo , Vitoria and Zaragoza .
- International scheduled destinations: Amsterdam , Bologna , Bordeaux , Brussels , Casablanca , Florence , Frankfurt , Geneva , Hanover , Lisbon , London , Lyon , Marseille , Milan , Nantes , Naples , Nice , Paris , Porto , Strasbourg , Tanger , Toulouse , Turin and Zurich .
Air Nostrum offers a comprehensive meal service on all scheduled flights. There is only the single cabin on all flights, called "Regional Business Class" where economy passengers are treated to the high levels of comfort and service normally found in other airline's Business Class. Service quality is reflected in the use of table linen instead of trays, stainless steel cutlery in place of plastic knives and forks, glassware and china cups in place of plastic cups and of course, a hot towel service.
On
23 January 2007 Air Nostrum flight IB 8041 from
Pamplona to Barcelona was forced to make an emergency landing at
El Prat after reporting problems with the front undercarriage on the plane, a
Bombardier Dash 8 Q300 . The plane had to make an emergency landing, but fortunately nobody was hurt. The following day flight IB 8665 from
Valladolid also had to make an emergency landing at the same airport due again to problems with the plane's undercarriage. Two of the forty passengers sustained minor injuries while disembarking from the plane, a
Bombardier CRJ-200ER .
The Air Nostrum fleet includes the following aircraft (at March 2007) :
Air Nostrum average fleet age is 4.5 years (at
July 2006 )
Air Nostrum Fleet Age .
