Whilst the airline has continued to invest in replacement aircraft, seeing the end of it's old 747-200's, this has to date failed to yield any sign of improvement in passenger service standards.
Now it would seem the malaise has spread wider across the airline, to the point where the European short haul standards have been downgraded in quality - whilst the intercontinental product is being upgraded, although failing to address the key problems of bad staff service.
The root cause is stated to be by saying that all staff fail to deliver some element of service quality within Iberia, but there are some very clear signs of unhappiness and lack of motivation being portrayed by more and more Iberia front-line staff.
The European operations have been downgraded to match low-cost carriers, although passengers still expect Iberia to offer some element of onboard product on these routes. Ironically, the front-line staff service has also been downgraded amongst European route cabin staff, removing one of the last elements where Iberia was achieving a higher quality ranking.
Also if keenly observed, as a key member of oneworld Alliance, Iberia will soon constitute a core problem when viewing any semblance of quality uniformity across the alliance airline members. Aer Lingus has followed the low-cost route, making it rather a strange bed-fellow of fellow oneworld member Cathay Pacific for example, and Iberia is now a very long way short of quality standards for other oneworld members.
In recent months there has been a growing sign that British Airways may be thinking of increasing its ownership stake in Iberia - whilst not aimed at the cross-merger of say Air France/KLM, British Airways must surely be wholly aware of the potential dangers in a closer alliance with an airline in quality decline.
Strong trade union agreements, long-established working practices and bureaucracy may be a key reason for the decline at Iberia, but with no signs of improvement to these areas in the past decade, one wonders how the airline can achieve real change that passengers will notice.
All said and done, Iberia still profits from their strong position as the leading Europe to Latin America airline. But the question here lies is that today will passenger loyalty tolerate poor service
