Review of Iberia flight from Milan to Madrid in Economy

2025 RECAP

Hello everyone!
Wish you a 2026 full of flights :)

This FlightReport is the last regarding 2025
During the year I broke my personal record for total distance flown (36.120 km|19.503 nm, more than 90% of Earth circumference) and number of flights taken, 27. The overall distance flown in my life is now around 250.000 kms and the flights count spans around 140-160. 

My personal podium is now:
1st - 2025 - 36.120 km | 19.503 nm - 27 flights
2nd - 2019 - 31.561 km | 17.042 nm - 14 flights
3rd - 2022 - 28.098 km | 15.172 nm - 13 flights

The record was helped by the Asian holiday in April, a couple of European short trips and 8 weekends visiting family in Rome or Pescara

Hoping to do better in 2026, aiming to target more than 100% of Earth circumference as distance flown

INTRODUCTION

The building I'm working on for the construction company had progressed very good in 2025. The 2026 will see the completion of concrete structures and the installations of all the systems, the finished and the glass facades.

Regarding the last, the glass facade producers decided to organize a short trip in north-western Spain to visit the factory where large glass panels are cut and assembled. The factory is located in Ponferrada, Castile and León region, 400 km from Madrid
I was very happy to be invited there since it was my first abroad mission and it would have been the opportunity to visit a very particular production facility.

The closest airport to Ponferrada is León (LEN-LELN), however it doesn't have any direct connection to Italy. The only flight arriving there is from Barcelona. The only feasible solution is to land in Madrid, rent a car and drive 400 kilometers to the town.

The trip was scheduled for 15-16th December with everyone of us departing from Milan (except one from Venice)

I have no clue about how much the flight costed and if there were other options.

ROUTING

Some stats:
26th flight of 2025 (as of the end of the year)
Overall great-circle distance flown in 2025 (as of the reported flight): 34.938 km | 18.865 nm

First time flying with Iberia
First time landing into MAD
First time on LIN-MAD route

BEFORE THE FLIGHT

Since the outbound flight was scheduled for 11:35 I was supposed to be at Linate Airport around 9:30
At that time of the day driving from San Pellegrino to the airport could require also 2 hours due to traffic (compared to the usual 50 mins)
Being afraid to loose the flight I asked my cousin to host me for the night before, considering she lives 10 km away from Linate

For the return flight the scheduled landing was 23:00, meaning I could easily drive home and be there by 1 am

Iberia allows online check-in 24 hours before departure. Since I was given my PNR I was able to get my boarding pass
Unfortunately the system assigned me an aisle seat, I'd try to change it at the airport

THE FLIGHT

In the morning I left my cousin's home around 9 am
Around 9:20 I dropped my car at P4 long term parking and took the shuttle bus to the terminal
At 9:35 I arrived at Milano-Linate Airport

Since I got an e-mail by Iberia asking me to check my luggage I went straight to their counters

Just a few people were queuing, everyone for the same reason
I was able to change my seat into a window one, 6F
It took me 10 minutes to complete the procedure

I met my colleagues at the check-in
After a coffee we made our way to the security inspection

Security was a breeze, we accessed airside minutes after 10 am

The departure lounge was getting ready for Christmas

Some plane-spotting time was necessary
The apron was pretty populated

Aeroitalia 737 docked at the gate

It departed minutes later

A KLM 737 with two British Airways and many ITA Airways birds

A private Bombardier Global 5000

Ten minutes before 11 our plane landed from Madrid

It docked at the gate 5 minutes later

Iberia Airbus A320neo EC-NFH
First flight on 3rd July 2019 (6.5 years old at the flight)
Delivered to Vueling in late July 2019 it was later stored in Madrid until October 2025, when it became part of IB's fleet
Equipped with 186 seats in mixed C-Y configuration, it's named after Bettina Kadner, the first woman to become an airline pilot in Europe

The boarding started half a hour after scheduled

The plane was pretty full
Only the rows 1-4 were used as Business Class

Legroom was sufficient 

Two easyJet birds sitting next to us

Boarding was quick, it took a bit more than 20 minutes to hear "boarding complete"

Leaving the gate fifteen minutes ahead of schedule

ITA A320

Waiting for departure behind an Aer Lingus A320
Meanwhile an Air France A220 was landing

Lining-up to go

Half a hour later than planned the plane began its run 

Blue birds ruling here!

Linate's Terminal and Idroscalo lake behind

Mondadori (left) and IBM (right) headquarters in Segrate

Climbing over the building site of Milan Westfield Shopping Mall

Milano in the distance

Milan framed by snowy Alps

Linate Airport

The city center

Climbing over clouds while pointing westward

Crossing the Alps
Not that much snow unfortunately

Most of the flight happened to be over clouds
Having nothing interesting to take pics to I nap for a while

A wind farm somewhere in Spain

80 minutes into the flight the cabin was prepared for landing

"Glory" optical phenomenon is always interesting to see

Passing through the clouds

Descending over Madrid suburbs

We'd land from south-east, on runway 32R

Enter text here…

Fuel tanks in Torrejon

Madrid–Torrejón Airport (IATA: TOJ, ICAO: LETO)

So strange to see two airports so close to each other

A2 motorway to Barcelona

Madrid Circunvalación M-50

At 13:55, five minutes before scheduled, we smoothly touched down at "Adolfo Suárez" Madrid–Barajas Airport

Taxiing to Terminal 4 (even if the boarding pass stated we'd have landed at Terminal 4-S) gave some good spotting opportunities

Iberia A350 and World 2 Fly A330
First time hearing about this airline

Airports with the name printed on the facade have such a great fashion in my opinion

Iberia A350 and LATAM Boeing 787 docked at Terminal 4S

Boliviana de Aviacion, Iberia, LATAM and Emirates A380 

Iberia A330

Lufthansa A320

Terminal 4 
The length of this building is impressive

PlusUltra A330

Reaching the stand less than 10 minutes after touching down

Leaving the aircraft minutes later

My team was made of 3 architects (one it's me) and a structural engineer
You can barely imagine the marvel entering the amazing Terminal designed by Richard Rogers

I love the combination of concrete, painted steel and wood
Even if outside was cloudy, the amount of natural light was giving the terminal a warm environment
And the structure felt so light even being so impressive in size

Heading to the baggage hall

In 2013 and 2015 I made two stop-overs while flying back from USA (NY and Florida respectively) and in both cases I flew Air Europa, visiting T1-T2-T3 complex
The difference in term of facility quality is impressive

Probably one of the most pleasant baggage reclaim hall I've ever seen, usually they're much more cramped (being located in the lower floor usually)

Twenty minutes after leaving the plane bags appeared on the belt

We made our way to the car rental center 
The arrivals hall was so crowded, a lot of people seemed to be waiting for flights arriving from South America

The arrival road lane gave good perspectives of the terminal

We collected our car and began our journey to Ponferrada almost one hour after landing

We waited to leave Madrid area to stop for lunch
Ponferrada can be reached by A-6 motorway
The entire journey took five hours lunch time included

Stay tuned for the return

FLIGHT-RADAR

Departure from LIN

Arrival into MAD