The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) extended anti-trust immunity to Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas) thereby allowing the Spanish carrier to join British Airways (BA, London Heathrow), Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa), and JAL - Japan Airlines (JL, Tokyo Haneda) in their joint business venture flights between Europe and Japan.

As it stands, Iberia's participation in the pact is expected to kick off from October 18, 2016 when it starts a 3x weekly Madrid Barajas-Tokyo Narita return service.

“We are very happy to launch our non-stop flights to Japan as part of this joint business," Luis Gallego, President and CEO of Iberia, said. "We want to offer our customers more and better travel options and this will help us do so. We are also glad to contribute to the strength of the joint business and the Oneworld alliance.”

Of the other members of the joint-business venture, Finnair offers regular flights from Helsinki to Tokyo Narita, Osaka Kansai, Nagoya Chubu, and Fukuoka while British Airways operates a double daily service from London Heathrow to Tokyo Narita and Tokyo Haneda. For its part, Japan Airlines operates daily services from Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports to Paris CDG, from Haneda to London and from Narita to Frankfurt International and Helsinki.