Volotea, the airline of small and mid-sized European cities, shared today its summer activity report for all the markets where it operates. Despite a season once again severely impacted by the COVID 19 crisis, Volotea has been able to put in place a strategy allowing it to grow above its 2019 capacity levels. Thanks to a new fleet and the creation of 85 new routes with a strong focus on domestic and island connectivity, Volotea has led, between June and August, the recovery among its competitors reaching 111% of the seats offered compared to 2019.

With a second summer season impacted by the pandemic, Volotea has reworked its strategy and adapted its offer to the new customer demand and expectations. By continuing with the focus it placed last year on the domestic offer, the airline has also increased the connectivity with the islands in all its markets. Since June, a total of 85 new routes have been launched, leading to Volotea offering more than 3.2 million seats during the season, which represents 111% of its 2019 capacity. Furthermore, Volotea’s strategy has shown very satisfactory results with a load factor of 91% among more than 21,800 flights operated. Another highlight of the season for the company, which has helped and contributed to its recovery, has been the evolution into a single fleet operator, in a move favouring the European manufacturer Airbus, through the early retirement of its 14 Boeing B717 aircraft and their replacement by the larger Airbus A320s. In total, Volotea has operated 40 Airbus A320 and A319 during the summer.

Despite the good results in terms of capacity, flights, and seat load, it has been a very stretched summer for Volotea and its airport and handling partners. The market, impacted by the Covid crisis, has shown a very unstable environment with a constant evolution of travelling procedures leading to added complexity to the operations and an increase need of support from passengers. To offer its clients the best possible experience, Volotea has continued —during the entire season— to facilitate free flexibility options and also to improve its Customer Care team, services and processes, providing the best possible support to its passengers.

“We are very satisfied with our summer activity in this pandemic context, and are very grateful for the positive response of our clients and crews. We have been able to help our clients fly to their holiday destinations despite the difficult circumstances for the travel industry as a whole. Our focus remains unchanged: to continue offering the maximum number of poorly served routes among small and mid European citites, at the most competitive prices. Our strategic shift to an all-Airbus fleet, both larger, more efficient and more environmentally friendly, has been a key element, together with our focus on domestic and island markets during the summer.  We hope the gradual recovery of travel will continue over the next months, but certainly are prepared for more ups and downs, by having improved our competitive cost base significantly during the crisis.” said Carlos Munoz, Founder and CEO of Volotea.

ABOUT VOLOTEA

Volotea was founded in 2011 by Carlos Munoz and Lázaro Ros, previously founders of Vueling, is one of the fastest-growing independent airlines in Europe, increasing year-on-year its fleet, routes served, and seats offered. Since its start, Volotea has carried more than 35 million passengers across Europe.

Volotea is based in 17 European small and mid-sized capitals: Asturias, Athens, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Cagliari, Genoa, Hamburg, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Naples, Olbia, Palermo, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Venice and Verona. Volotea serves more than 100 cities across 16 countries including Algeria which will be launched in December, from France.

In 2020 Volotea signed an agreement with Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification, in order to verify the successful implementation of health and hygiene measures. Volotea is the world’s first airline to have its preventive measures against Covid-19 audited by Bureau Veritas.

Volotea is becoming a full Airbus carrier in 2021, by renewing part of its fleet with aircraft from the European manufacturer. The airline, which had planned to perform this fleet unification in 2023, has advanced its plans in order to improve its cost base over the next 2-3 years and increase its network offering, with aircraft that have a higher capacity and a longer flying range.

The airline has operated a fleet of 40 aircraft in summer 2021 versus 36 in 2019. In terms of volume, Volotea and has increased its seat capacity by up to 111% compared to summer 2019.

Volotea employs over 1,350 staff across Europe and was the most active airline in Summer 2020 among its main competitors in activity, seat-load factor, operational levels and customer satisfaction.