Volotea (V7, Barcelona El Prat) has launched its 2020 programme, which boasts a total of nine million seats, and will see the airline operate 62,000 flights on 346 routes to 90 destinations. This includes the opening of 53 new routes and new A319-100 bases in Naples Capodichino, Lyon St. Exupéry and Hamburg Finkenwerder. These impressive growth figures also include operations to eight new airports, and its first flights to Bulgaria, namely to Varna.
The airline expects to carry between 8.5 million and 9.0 million passengers in 2020. To drive this growth it will add a further five A319-100s, increasing its fleet up to 38 units. At the same time, three B717-200s will be phased out in 2020, accelerating the airline's transition to an all-Airbus fleet in 2022.
Of the 346 routes the low-cost carrier (LCC) will serve next year, it suggests that 57% or 198 of those city pairs are monopoly sectors. Currently, Volotea operates 125 exclusive routes in Italy, 76 in France, 51 in Spain and 56 in Greece.
In total Volotea serves 14 different countries - Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Morocco, Portugal and now Bulgaria. Departing from France, Volotea will operate 161 routes, 176 from Italy, 90 routes from Spain and 80 from Greece.
Volotea has been growing steadily year-on-year in passengers and operations. Last July the airline celebrated carrying 25 million passengers and is expected in the coming months to pass the 30 million-passenger mark since it launched operations in 2012. This year it expects to carry around 7.7 million passengers.
At many of the bases it serves, the airline claims it is either the largest or second-largest airline and often offers the most number of destinations at these airports. In Palermo International, Verona, Nantes, Strasbourg Enzheim and Genoa the LCC says it is the number one airline in terms of destinations served, while at Venice Marco Polo, Bordeaux Mérignac, Toulouse Blagnac, Marseilles, Bilbao, Asturias, and Cagliari airports it takes second spot. Overall it also says it is the second-largest airline in France and third biggest in Italy in terms of the number of domestic routes.
“We are both excited and confident about the growth we are experiencing in all the markets where we operate. At the end of a very competitive year, we are now growing in aircraft, routes, markets, staff and improving the quality of our service, which confirms the resilience of our strategy in serving mid and small European cities. Most importantly we are increasing the opportunities of our clients, by continuing to offer new possibilities for travel at very competitive fares with almost 350 routes in 2020,” stated Carlos Muñoz, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Volotea.
Two of the airline's new bases are located in its main markets, namely Italy and France. However, the base in Hamburg represents its first in Germany and has been opened to serve the Airbus Shuttle Service that Volotea will operate for the next five years. Flights started on November 4 and connect two of the major Airbus sites in Toulouse and at Hamburg's Finkenwerder airport.
