Where is Plus Ultra airline from?

Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas was founded in 2011 as a privately owned Spanish airline, headquartered and based at Madrid-Barajas Airport, and began carrying passengers in 2015. Unlike the country's major flagship carriers, it has never operated a large fleet or short-haul routes within Europe: from the start it specialized in long-haul flights to Latin America, a niche where it overlaps with Iberia, Air Europa or Avianca on some destinations.

Its network has historically centered on Caracas, Santo Domingo and other cities in the Caribbean and South America, with Madrid as its only European point of origin. The airline made headlines in March 2021, when Spain's state holding company, SEPI, approved a 53 million euro bailout from the Strategic Companies Solvency Support Fund, created to prop up companies deemed strategic during the coronavirus crisis. The package — 19 million in an ordinary loan and 34 million in a profit-participating loan — drew heavy criticism given the airline's small size relative to the amount of aid and because of the Venezuelan ties of part of its shareholders, and ended up before both courts and Parliament.

Plus Ultra's fleet has always been small and has relied on long-range wide-body aircraft, in particular the Airbus A340, a four-engine jet other airlines were retiring, which let the carrier pick up transatlantic aircraft on the cheap. The loan's repayment terms kept the company under scrutiny for years, and its activity has fluctuated with demand for flights to Venezuela, a market constrained by the restrictions much of international aviation imposes on the country.