Volotea

Volotea
IATA ICAO Call sign
V7 VOE VOLOTEA
Founded2011; 13 years ago (2011)
Commenced operations5 April 2012; 12 years ago (2012-04-05)[1]
Operating bases
List of bases
Frequent-flyer programMegavolotea
Fleet size45
Destinations79
HeadquartersAsturias Airport, Castrillón, Spain (registered office)
Key people
  • Carlos Muñoz (CEO)
  • Lázaro Ros (CEO)
Revenue€ 694 million (2023)
Employees1,800
Websitewww.volotea.com

Volotea ([boloˈtea]) is a Spanish low-cost airline registered in Castrillón[2] and headquartered in Barcelona.[3]

History

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Volotea's head office in Barcelona

Foundation and early years

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Volotea was established by Alaeo S.L. from Barcelona, a company created by former Vueling founders, Carlos Muñoz and Lázaro Ros. The name "Volotea" originates from the Spanish verb "revolotear", meaning "to fly around".[4] It commenced operations on 5 April 2012, from Venice Marco Polo Airport.[5]

The company is backed by three private-equity funds, two of them from Europe (Axis Participaciones Empresariales and Corpfin Capital) and a third from the United States (CCMP Capital), whose chairman, Greg Brenneman, was one-time President and COO of the US airline Continental Airlines,[6] and also chairs Volotea's board. The company raised over €50m before operations began.[7] US CCMP Capital Partners holds 49% of voting rights; Axis and Corpfin Capital 25%; and Muñoz and Ros 26% along with relatives: this ownership has existed since foundation, but it could change before an initial public offering prior to 2021–2022.[8]

After studying the Bombardier CRJ1000 and the Embraer E-195 in 2011, Volotea selected the Boeing 717 after Southwest Airlines acquired AirTran and replaced its 717 fleet.[8] Boeing announced on 15 February 2012 that it had signed a long-term lease deal with Volotea for an undisclosed number of Boeing 717 aircraft.[9] In March 2015, it was announced that Volotea would receive a further four 717s from Blue1.[10] However, in November 2015, Volotea announced plans to phase out its 717 fleet over the next few years and replace it with Airbus A320 family aircraft.[11]

Volotea opened 90 routes in its first year, of which 40 were closed within two years; it operated almost 300 routes in summer 2018 including 220 openings, and this could double to at least 500-600 across Europe. Volotea has been profitable since 2014, a turnover of €360 million ($431 million) is expected in 2018 after $347M in 2017, carrying 5.7 to 6 million passengers, 50% being leisure travellers, 35% visiting friends and relatives, and 15% business travellers.[8]

Due to the 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis, in 2017 Volotea changed the headquarters to Asturias.[12]

Development since 2020

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In January 2021, Volotea retired the last of its 19 Boeing 717-200s.[13] It was the last European airline to operate the type. In October 2021, Volotea won the auction for handling the PSOs, for a period of 7 months, to and from the island of Sardinia, organised by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia on behalf of the Italian Government.[14][15][16] The airline operated the PSO services by offering daily flights, as per what required by the auction, from the Sardinian airports of Cagliari-Elmas, Olbia-Costa Smeralda and Alghero-Fertilia to the Italian airports of Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate. The PSO operations started on 15 October 2021 and are to end on 15 May 2022.[15]

In January 2022, Volotea announced the closure of its base at Genoa Airport after five years, ending 14 routes.[17] In March 2022, the company announced its intentions to take part in the upcoming PSO auction in Sardinia, which had been previously announced by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, solely with the route from Cagliari-Elmas to Rome Fiumicino airport, being it the most profitable service within the PSO scheme, while data regarding the other routes was being analysed as they were also being taken into consideration.[18] Subsequently, at the end of the month, ITA Airways announced its willingness to operate PSO service routes from all Sardinian airports without any financial compensations for an year until May 2023.[19] As a result, Volotea announced on 28 March 2022 that it was also interested in covering all PSO routes, without financial compensations, from both Cagliari-Elmas and Olbia-Costa Smeralda airports, after having analysed data from their previous PSO experience.[20] In April 2022, Carlos Muñoz, the CEO of the company, eventually announced Volotea had reached an agreement with ITA Airways; according to which the airline will operate only half of the frequencies, while the remaining ones would be assigned to the counterpart.[21]

In May 2023, Volotea and Eurowings signed a cooperation agreement with reciprocal sales of 150 routes.[22]

Corporate affairs

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The key trends for Volotea are:[23]

Revenue
(€m)[24] 		Number of
employees 		Number of
passengers
(m)[25] 		Passenger
load factor
(%)[26] 		Number of
routes 		Fleet size References
2018 396 6.5 93 [27]
2019 441 1,300 7.6 94 319 36 [28]
2020 192 1,120 3.8 90.7 285 36 [29]
2021 302 1,209 6.0 354 41 [30]
2022 557 1,326 9.4 91 360 41 [31]
2023 694 1,800 10.4 410 44 [32]

Destinations

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The focus of Volotea's route network is on destinations around the European side of the Mediterranean coast as well as Western and Southern Europe. As of May 2018, Volotea serves metropolitan and leisure destinations mainly in Spain, France, Italy and Greece with destinations in Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway and Portugal.[33] Volotea served its first African destination (Tangier, Morocco) on 5 April 2019.[34]

Fleet

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Volotea Airbus A319-100
A former Volotea Boeing 717-200

Current fleet

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As of September 2024, Volotea operates the following aircraft:[35][36]

Volotea fleet
Aircraft In service Orders Passengers Notes
Airbus A319-100 20 — 138
156
Airbus A320-200 25 — 174
180
Total 45

Historical fleet

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Former fleet
Aircraft Total Introduced Retired Notes
Boeing 717-200 19 2012 2021 Last European operator.[13]

Award and recognition

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On 24 June 2024, Volotea was voted 2024 Best Low-Cost Airline in Europe by Skytrax.[37]

References

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  1. ^ Drum, Bruce (31 March 2012). "Volotea starts charter operations". Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Conditions of carriage". Volotea. 17 November 2020. Retrieved 2023-08-03. [...]registered address at Aeropuerto de Asturias, Santiago del Monte (Castrillón), 33459, Spain[...]
  3. ^ "About Volotea". Volotea. 23 February 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-03. where you can find us Our offices Travessera de Gracia 56, 4ª. 08006 - Barcelona
  4. ^ Baigorri, Manuel. "New Carrier Volotea Sets Up In Barcelona, Base Of Failed Spanair." Bloomberg. 15 February 2012. Retrieved on 12 June 2012.
  5. ^ "Venice launch for Europe's newest LCC Volotea; 76 routes planned this summer across 53 airports in 10 countries". anna.aero. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  6. ^ "Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental". In: Harvard Business Review on Crisis Management.
  7. ^ King, Amy (February 17, 2012). "CCMP, Axis and Corpfin back Volotea". unquote.com. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  8. ^ a b c Clark, Oliver (23 May 2018). "INTERVIEW: Carlos Munoz, chief executive, Volotea". Flightglobal.
  9. ^ "Boeing, New European Airline Volotea Agree to 717 Leasing Deal". boeing.mediaroom.com. February 15, 2012. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  10. ^ "Finland's Blue to offload B717 fleet to Volotea, Delta". Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  11. ^ "Volotea to phase out B717s in favour of A319s". ch-aviation.com. November 10, 2015. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  12. ^ "Volotea traslada su sede social de Barcelona a Asturias, donde tiene su única base en España" [Volotea moves its headquarters from Barcelona to Asturias, where it has its only base in Spain]. www.europapress.es (in Spanish). Europa Press. 2017-10-19. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  13. ^ a b Macca, Marco (2021-01-11). "Volotea: The End of The Boeing 717 in Europe". Airways Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  14. ^ "Continuità, rotte a Volotea - Regione Autonoma della Sardegna". www.regione.sardegna.it. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  15. ^ a b "Volotea batte Ita e si aggiudica voli agevolati Sardegna - Sardegna". Agenzia ANSA (in Italian). 2021-10-13. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  16. ^ "Volotea Wins Territorial Continuity for the Sardinian Routes". 14 October 2021.
  17. ^ aviacionline.com 29 January 2022
  18. ^ "Aerei:Sardegna,in estate con Volotea solo Cagliari-Fiumicino - Sardegna". Agenzia ANSA (in Italian). 2022-03-22. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  19. ^ Madeddu, Davide (2022-03-24). "Ita Airways pronta ai voli in continuità territoriale". Il Sole 24 ORE (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  20. ^ "Aerei: sfida sui cieli sardi tra Ita e Volotea, che rilancia - Sardegna". Agenzia ANSA (in Italian). 2022-03-28. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  21. ^ "Volotea: Munoz, con Ita divisi voli Cagliari e Olbia al 50% - Sardegna". Agenzia ANSA (in Italian). 2022-04-06. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  22. ^ "Volotea and Eurowings sales partnership signed". Volotea. 2023-06-09. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  23. ^ "Corporate Social Responsibility at Volotea". Volotea. 2023-10-04. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  24. ^ "Volotea: turnover 2016-2020". Statista. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  25. ^ "Volotea: passenger traffic 2015-2020". Statista. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  26. ^ "Volotea: passenger load factor 2017-2020". Statista. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  27. ^ "Non financial information report Volotea 2018" (PDF). Volotea. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  28. ^ "Non financial information report Volotea 2019" (PDF). Volotea. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  29. ^ "Non financial information report Volotea 2020" (PDF). Volotea. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  30. ^ "Non financial information report Volotea 2021" (PDF). Volotea. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  31. ^ "Non financial information report Volotea 2022" (PDF). Volotea. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  32. ^ "VOLOTEA REPORTS". Volotea. 11 July 2024. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
  33. ^ "Destinations". Volotea. 2020-11-17. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  34. ^ "Volotea ouvre un Nantes – Tanger" [Volotea opens a Nantes - Tangier]. air-journal.fr (in French). 12 November 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  35. ^ "Volotea Airline Information". ch-aviation.com. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  36. ^ XLS file accessed via "Airbus Orders & Deliveries". Airbus. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  37. ^ [email protected] (2024-06-24). "Qatar Airways World's Best Airline at 2024 World Airline Awards". SKYTRAX. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
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Media related to Volotea at Wikimedia Commons

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