Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas) will only resume operating long haul flights out of Barcelona El Prat when such routes become profitable Willie Walsh, the CEO of the International Airlines Group (IAG), said on Monday.

Walsh said that at present, Iberia preferred to route all its long haul international traffic out of its Madrid Barajas central hub before warning that Vueling Airlines (VY, Barcelona El Prat), the IAG's budget carrier, is also set to scale back its own Barcelona operations.

“For Iberia, the most efficient model is to focus all its long-haul flights on Madrid as a hub,” he told Spain's Local newspaper.

According to the ch-aviation route database, Barcelona's long haul network consists of services plied by the following carriers: Aerolíneas Argentinas, Air Canada, Air Transat, American Airlines, Avianca, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, Gambia Bird, PIA - Pakistan International Airlines, Qatar Airways, Transaero Airlines, United Airlines, Ural Airlines, US Airways and UTair.