The airline Vueling has announced that its flights will allow passengers to view the solar eclipse from the air. Two routes depart from Barcelona, located in northeastern Spain, and Palma de Mallorca, located in the Balearic Islands, with the final destination being Lisbon.
The airline specified that the aircraft will fly along the eclipse trajectory at an altitude of 30,000 to 36,000 feet, which corresponds to approximately nine thousand to eleven thousand meters.
According to the planned routes and schedule, passengers on the Barcelona-Lisbon and Palma de Mallorca-Lisbon flights will be in the moment of the full phase of the eclipse, when the Moon completely covers the Sun for a short time.
Nine other flights will cross zones near the trajectory, allowing for a partial observation of the eclipse, provided meteorological conditions are favorable. These routes include connections between Lisbon and Barcelona, Bilbao and Alicante, Seville and Santiago de Compostela, as well as flights from Barcelona, Ibiza, Valencia, and Malaga to Paris, and from Ibiza and Malaga to Seville.
Vueling will provide onboard inventory with protective glasses so that passengers can safely observe the phenomenon through the airplane windows. Experts warn that looking at the Sun without certified filters, even during partial phases, can lead to serious and irreversible eye damage.
The airline also emphasized that its network provides connectivity to major points along the band where the total solar eclipse will occur, stretching from the Cantabrian coast and the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean Sea. The August 12 eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse visible from the Iberian Peninsula since 1905.