The written sources for the early periods of Iberia's history are mostly medieval Georgian chronicles, that modern scholarship interpret as a semi-legendary narrative.

[47], The plans to make the Iberia group the dominant airline in the Latin American market also failed in Venezuela. In-flight catering is provided by Gate Gourmet. [11], Iberia, Compañía Aérea de Transportes was incorporated on 28 June 1927 with a capital investment by the financier Horacio Echevarrieta and Deutsche Luft Hansa of 1.1 million pesetas. Emperor Vespasian fortified the ancient Mtskheta site of Arzami for the Iberian kings in AD 75. [4] The letter "s" in this instance served as a prefix for the root word "Ver" (or "Vir"). [15], However, after the emperor Julian was slain during his failed campaign in Persia in 363, Rome ceded control of Iberia to Persia, and King Varaz-Bakur I (Asphagur) (363-365) became a Persian vassal, an outcome confirmed by the Peace of Acilisene in 387.

Iberia thus became a tributary state and an Arab emir was installed in Tbilisi about 653. Its population, the Iberians, formed the nucleus of the Kartvelians (i.e. At the end of the 2nd century BC, the Pharnavazid king Pharnajom was dethroned by his own subjects and the crown given to the Armenian prince Artaxias who ascended the Iberian throne in 93 BC, establishing the Artaxiad dynasty of Iberia. [69] The agreement was confirmed in April 2010,[70] and in July, the European Commission and United States Department of Transportation permitted the merger and the two airlines began to co-ordinate transatlantic routes with American Airlines. The continuing rivalry between Byzantium and Sasanian Persia for supremacy in the Caucasus, and the next unsuccessful insurrection (523) of the Georgians under Gurgen had severe consequences for the country. Will 5G Impact Our Cell Phone Plans (or Our Health?! This close association with Armenia and Pontus brought upon the country an invasion (65 BC) by the Roman general Pompey, who was then at war with Mithradates VI of Pontus, and Armenia; but Rome did not establish her power permanently over Iberia. [7] Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Iberia and the Venezuelan government had the intention of liquidating the company to avoid bankruptcy. [42] This, together with the aforementioned sales, generated a big controversy, giving rise to criticism of the Argentine government for the privatization of the company. [22] The airline was nationalised on 30 September 1944 and became part of Instituto Nacional de Industria. The Arabs reached Iberia about 645 and forced its eristavi (prince), Stephanoz II (637-c. 650), to abandon his allegiance to Byzantium and recognize the Caliph as his suzerain. [38] In 1991 Iberia bought a 45% stake in Viasa for $81million[39] and a 35% stake in Chilean Ladeco[40] The airline continued making progress in setting up Europe's first international airline frequent-flyer programme in 1991, with the creation of Iberia Plus. In earliest times, the area of Caucasian Iberia was inhabited by several related tribes stemming from the Kura-Araxes culture, collectively called Iberians (or Eastern Iberians) in Greco-Roman ethnography. The policy of the company was to separate itself from the German orbit to which it had been linked in its first years, and establish relations with the United States in terms of aircraft purchase and supplies of aeronautical material for the operation. The Iberian Peninsula is located in southwestern Europe. The Mediterranean Sea lies on its southeastern coast, the Bay of Biscay on its northern coast and the Atlantic Ocean on its western coast. [62], The company head office is in the inmobiliaria Colonial in the MV49 Business Park in Madrid. Along the east coast it was written in Iberian script, a system of 28 syllabic and alphabetic characters, some derived from Greek and Phoenician systems but most of unknown origin. The splendid La dama de Elche (“The Lady of Elche”), a bust with characteristic headdress and ornaments, also shows classical influence.

[31] In the early 1970s the jumbo jets Boeing 747s and Douglas DC-10s came to the company during an expansion of the intercontinental routes, specially to Central America. By the middle of this decade the airline flew to almost all Latin American capitals. [63], On 3 April 2001, Iberia was privatised and included in the IBEX-35 stock index of the Madrid stock exchange. There is a wide range of ceramics in the distinctive Iberian styles. At the time it was estimated the alliance would generate an estimated £230 million in annual cost-saving for BA, in addition to the £330 million which would be saved by the merger with Iberia. This peninsula forms the southernmost point of the European continent and contains several prominent physical features such as mountains and large rivers. While Brazil remained governed by a branch line of the erstwhile Portuguese royal house in the late 19th century, Spain lost Gibraltar to England in the 18th century, continental Latin America in the early 19th century and almost all its remaining colonies in the Spanish American War of 1898 which caused a literary movement often called "the generation of 98" to bemoan Spain's fall from glory. In its "Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 December 2011" BA declared that "negative movements in pension asset values and financial returns from these assets may increase the size of the pension deficit". [22] This was achieved in 1946, Iberia was the first airline to fly between Europe and South America after World War II, using a Douglas DC-4 to operate flights between Madrid and Buenos Aires. The Iberian Peninsula is one of the largest and oldest peninsulas in Europe. [43] Some of these changes included the development of a free booking program, the complete computerization of the management system, the introduction of business class on domestic flights, and the creation of a new hub in Ezeiza International Airport for long range regional flights to Latin American destinations. [48] In February 1997, the agreement for the liquidation of Viasa that accumulated a 200 million dollars debt, with a capital of only 2 million dollars, was announced. Although the modern Basque language was formerly thought to be the descendant of Iberian, many scholars now believe the two languages to be separate. [4], According to another theory, it is derived from a Colchian word, "Imer", meaning "country on the other side of the mountain", that is of the Likhi Range, which divided Colchis and Iberia from each other; this is also the origin of the modern name Imereti.[5]. The Iberian Peninsula, which is located in southwestern Europe, is formed primarily by the three countries of Andorra, Spain and Portugal, and contains small portions of France and the British-owned territory of Gibraltar as well. [20], In 1940, the government gave the monopoly of national air transport to Iberia (this fact changed 6 years later when the government liberalized the national air traffic for the private airlines),[21] this privilege helped the company to start building as an important international airline, which had not been until then. Another Georgian chronicle, Kartlis Tskhovreba (“History of Kartli”) claims Azo to be an officer of Alexander’s, who massacred a local ruling family and conquered the area, until being defeated at the end of the 4th century BC by Prince Pharnavaz, at that time a local chief.