Iberia is to shed 4,500 jobs to save Spain's biggest airline from collapse and more may follow amid the economic crisis in the indebted eurozone nation, parent group International Airlines Group said Friday.
"Iberia is in (a) fight for survival," the carrier's chief executive Rafael Sanchez-Lozano said in a statement issued by IAG, which also owns British Airways.
"It is unprofitable in all its markets. We have to take tough decisions now to save the company and return it to profitability.
"Unless we take radical action to introduce permanent structural change the future for the airline is bleak. However this plan gives us a platform to turn the business around and grow," he added.
Sanchez-Lozano said "the Spanish and European economic crisis has impacted on Iberia, but its problems are systemic and pre-date the country's current difficulties."
Read more: AFP: Iberia to axe 4,500 jobs to stay alive
