Iberia restructures sustainability leadership for next phase of transformation

Spanish airline Iberia has restructured its corporate governance and named Diego Fernández Ortiz as Director of Strategy, Transformation and Sustainability as it prepares for the next phase of its transition.

Iberia is planning to launch its ‘2030 Flight Plan’ this June, and in preparation, the firm has made significant changes to its management team. Fernández Ortiz is promoted from his previous role as Director of Strategy and will also join the management committee.

Before joining Iberia in 2021, he spent seven years at Santander Bank and nearly nine years at McKinsey.

The new Strategy, Transformation and Sustainability department he is heading combines Iberia’s previous areas of transformation (which was part of the finance department) and sustainability, which was integrated into the corporate department.

With the incorporation of sustainability and strategy, Iberia signals the essential role of environmental action in the construction of its future. In particular, the new structure will “provide a more strategic vision of the acquisition of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and the promotion of the production of this fuel in Spain,” the airline says.

In addition, Iberia has also created an independent customer division within its management committee, headed by Beatriz Guillén.

Iberia sustainability strategy

Iberia is working to reduce its environmental impact by modernising its fleet – notably with the purchase of Airbus A350 and the A320neo aircraft, which are known to be more efficient and silent. 

It is also making its operations more efficient and investing in SAF as part of IAG Group – itself committed to powering 10% of its flights with sustainable aviation fuel by 2030. In 2023, the company operated its first Airbus A320neo flight from Toulouse to Madrid with a 5% SAF blend.

Since 2020, Iberia has reduced the emissions intensity of its flights (expressed in grams of CO2 per passenger-kilometre) by nearly 23%, but absolute flight emissions have increased as the airline industry recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, Iberia flights were responsible for 4,973,608 tonnes of GHG emissions. 

Iberia was one of 284 companies that saw their commitment to set science-based climate targets removed from the SBTi website, as they failed to submit their goals within the two-year deadline.