Iberia has unveiled its new walk-on air shuttle service between Madrid and Barcelona, known as the Puente Aéreo.

The airline hopes the redesigned service will maintain its existing advantages, while adding flexibility, new facilities for customers, and more flights to choose from, thanks to the agreement reached with Vueling to operate this route jointly.

The changes, to be implemented next July, include the option of making flight reservations in addition to walk-on and pre-paid open tickets.

By making reservations, customers are assured of space in the flight in the seats they have selected, and there will be full flexibility for changing reserved flights one or more times without any penalty.

As of July, reservations, ticket purchases, seat selection, changes in flights, and boarding passes can all be obtained online on iberia.com or though the Iberia smart phone app, allowing passengers to head straight to boarding gates when they arrive at the airport, saving time and trouble.

Boarding passes can be issued on purchases of reserved seats and up to 24 before flights corresponding to pre-paid open tickets.

Customers, who haven’t checked-in for their flights online, will be able to do it in the Air Shuttle dedicated area at the airports as late as 15 minutes before flight departure.

All Air Shuttle passengers, regardless if they are flying with an open ticket or have made a reservation for an air-shuttle flight, will use the dedicated security controls for the Air Shuttle at Madrid and Barcelona airports, while the aircraft operating the flights will be located at boarding gates near these areas.

Business Class and other premium passengers using the shuttle have easy access to the nearby VIP lounges.

Up to 26 flights on weekdays and 13 on weekends from the two airports will be available, thanks to the addition of Vueling’s ten flights to Iberia’s 16 frequencies in the shuttle service, under an agreement between both airlines to operate jointly the Madrid-Barcelona route.

With the first flights taking off at 06:30 and the last at 21:45, the two airlines will offer flights every 15 or 30 minutes during peak times and every hour during the rest of the day.

The reservation system will show clearly which of the airlines is operating each flight.

Marco Sansavini, Iberia chief commercial officer, said: “These changes are aimed at meeting customers’ demands and expectations.

“We’re keeping all the good bits of the shuttle service, streamlining the walk-on service, and increasing the frequency of flights, and improving the flight schedule, while adding a seat selection option for customers.

“The joint operation of the two IAG airlines allows us to offer an excellent proposal to our customers.”