Clickair To Be Iberia's New LCC Product

Spanish flag-carrier Iberia has announced that its new low-cost carrier's name will be Clickair. The low-cost airline was originally called Catair, it being based in Barcelona, but in a statement Clickair said that the reason behind the change was that it had to do with computers, since its main sales medium will be the internet. (Strategic Name Development has more on the name change.)

However, Clickair's future may be shaky. Pilots at Iberia, concerned about salaries and job security, threatened a week-long strike last week, even though it was called off after promises of job security. However, the flight crews have not yet recieved their much sought-after wage increases.

And in bigger news, earlier today Iberia ground staff blocked one of three runways at the Barcelona airport to stage a protest after the Iberia lost a license to operate ground handling operations. They used buses and other vehicles to block the runway. This loss of the contract could be a major problem for Clickair's future, as the low cost airline had expected to share ground handling operations with Iberia (and thus save a lot of money).