Spanish airline Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas has announced that it will be adding five additional Airbus A330 aircraft to its fleet within the next 18 months. 

With the new aircraft, privately-owned Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas will not only expand its fleet to ten aircraft, but become also an all-A330 operator, since it will retire its last remaining A340-300, which had already been in storage for a period of time (as of June Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas has a fleet of five A330-200s and one A340-300). 

The stated goal of the Spanish carrier is to continue increasing services to its core markets in Latin America and Africa. 

Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas offers some 32 weekly scheduled long-haul services connecting Madrid-Barajas (MAD) to Bogotá (BOG) and Cartagena de India (CTG), in Colombia, Lima (LIM), Perú, Malabo (SSG), Equatorial Guinea and Caracas (CCS), Venezuela. It also flies to the Venezuelan capital from Tenerife (TFN). 

Charter and ACMI services account also for a substantial portion of the business of Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas. For example, the Spanish airline has been operating services for SATA Azores Airlines, linking this Portuguese archipelago the US, and between Poland and the Caribbean for Polish tour-operator Rainbow. 

The growth of this airline, which during the COVID pandemic was the object of a controversial €53 million government bailout (a related court case was dismissed in 2023), takes place at a time when there is uncertainty about the future structure of the Spain to Latin America air travel market. 

The proposed acquisition of Air Europa by its competitor Iberia may facilitate the entry of alternative carriers into some of the routes currently operated by the two merging airlines if the EU’s competition authorities, which are currently assessing the deal, decide on remedial measures.