Iberia Maintenance is returning 29 A320 family aircraft into service for Iberia Group: 23 for Iberia and six for Iberia Express.

The aircraft have been preserved for more than a year, and Iberia Maintenance will perform required checks for their return into operation for the summer season.

[Better times are here: The above video shows how aircraft are being returned to passenger service]

Checks are required for engines, hydraulic systems, avionics and other essential elements such as landing gear, brakes and wheels.

In some cases, heavy maintenance work will also have to be carried out at Iberia Maintenance’s La Muñoza facilities, where an aircraft’s entry into service coincides with a recurrent scheduled overhaul.

Iberia Maintenance said it had preserved more than 150 aircraft since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, both for IAG Group and third-party customers, in Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga and Seville.

In total, the MRO company is working to overhaul a total of 46 IAG and third-party aircraft and their engines for the summer season.

As the Covid-19 crisis subsides in many countries, airlines are returning passenger aircraft to service. Iberia, for example, is resuming flights to several summer destinations in Italy, Croatia, Portugal and the USA in June.

As a result of the increased demand for aircraft returning into service, Iberia Maintenance said it had developed a mobile application – RTO.com – so that operators can check the availability of days and book overhaul slots.

Iberia Maintenance is also working on converting three A330s that had been used as freighters back to their original configuration, so that they can carry passengers rather than cargo.