Review of Iberia flight from Madrid to Milan 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:
27th flight of 2025 (as of the end of the year)
Overall great-circle distance flown in 2025 (as of the reported flight): 36.120 km|19.503 nm

First time on MAD-LIN route

BEFORE THE FLIGHT

As we made it to Ponferrada it came the time to check-in for the return flight
I got assigned an aisle seat

Departing at 20:50 meant to be at Barajas not later than 18:30/19:00, in order to leave the car at the rental center
This would have mean leaving the factory around 14 to be sure

THE FLIGHT

Visiting the glass factory proved to be really interesting, seeing those enormous glass panels being assembled was such a good experience
Definitely worth the time and effort to go there

Around 14:30 we left the place to go straight to Madrid Airport
The journey was event-less, we just got into some traffic while approaching Madrid 

We drove inside "Adolfo Suárez" Madrid–Barajas Airport by 19:15, one hour and half before scheduled departure

Enter text here…

The return of the car was pretty quick and the parking lot is straight in front of the terminal
We accessed the building fifteen minutes after driving into the airport

The terminal was pretty busy, a lot of flights seemed to be departing

Honestly one of the best check-in hall I've been, even if huge in size the place felt so warm and welcoming due to the extent use of wood on the curved ceiling
Definitely a well conceived space, from an architect point-of-view

Checking-in we received a notification from Iberia
It required baggage to be checked in due to the plane being full 

The process was a bit messed up

First, the bag-tag was self-printed, along with the boarding pass
The machine was not working properly, but the only two agents were pretty busy strolling around the counters

The second step was the bag drop
Only four desks were opened, with some people checking 2/3 bags each

The whole process costed me 10 minutes

Since I was not feeling good for tiredness and a bit of flu I didn't try to change my seat
I just wanted to nap, being a night flight it was not an issue

Being the boarding time close we made our way to the inspection area

The security was a real pain
Only 2 lanes were available, making them quite overcrowded
Moreover, the lane I was in got slowed down due to a bag getting stuck in the conveyor

I would have expected more, however the area was undergoing refurbishment, hope it will fix it

The duty free following security

The terminal offers quite a good shopping and food selection, however everything was getting closed soon

The terminal wing looked impressive at night too!

Our gate was ready for departure

Ten minutes after scheduled the gate was opened

Iberia Airbus A321 EC-JQZ
First flight on 7th April 2006 (19.7 years at the moment of the flight)
Delivered to Iberia the same month
Equipped with 217 seats in mixed C-Y configuration, it's named after one of the palaces in Granada, Generalife

Corporate door and wing shots

The plane was almost 100% full
I made my way to the far end of the cabin

We left the gate a few minutes later and depart from Madrid 17 minutes after scheduled

Almost immediately I felt asleep and spent the entire flight napping

We encountered a light turbulence while approaching Milan, but nothing impressive

At 22:49, eleven minutes before planned, we touched down at Milano-Linate Airport

Disembarking under the rain ten minutes after putting wheels on the ground

After retrieving my bag and greetings my collegues I went straight to the parking lot
I leave the airport somewhere like 23:15
Exactly at midnight I switched off my car's engine at my house

Thank you for the attention on this short report

FLIGHT-RADAR

Departure from MAD

Arrival into LIN