Iberia has launched its new website with innovations that promises to revolutionise on-line relations between the airline and its customers.

The new site, which the airline claims is much easier to use, automatically adapts to the needs and tastes of each customer, providing personalised treatment and greater scope for interaction.

Searches for flights, bookings, and on-line check-in procedures are all “faster and more intuitive”, argues Iberia.

A pioneering innovation is the “inspirational” search engine to help customers choose holiday and getaway destinations by asking them what they like to do, see, eat, wear and listen to, which can supplement traditional search criteria such as geographical region, date, and fare price.

The “inspirational” engine suggests destinations that match the customer’s preferences.

Travellers can also assemble their own travel guides from information available on the site, picking and choosing what to include.

At present the choice is limited to 20 cities – the most popular Iberia destinations – but it will soon be extended to the airline’s nearly 100 destinations in Spain, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East.

Social media

The new site also reflects the growing importance of the main social media –Twitter and Facebook– which enables Iberia to personalise its customer interfaces even further.

This facilitates new services like social seating, which allows customers to choose seats near other passengers with similar interests, as ascertained by viewing their profiles.

The Fly with Me feature allows customers to invite friends to travel with them. And the “inspirational” search engine can identify their social network contacts in the chosen destination.

Another pioneering Iberia application available via Facebook is Fly and Friends, through which the customer can see a map showing the location of Facebook friends as well as scheduled events in any city, along with the best options for getting there.

Iberia developed these applications after conducting a survey of more than one million followers on Twitter and Facebook, in which it learned that 85 per cent travel to visit family or friends, or by cultural and entertainment options in the cities to be visited.