Page 38 - Aviation News (February 2020)

Volotea the low-cost model

Spanish budget airline

Volotea has fl ipped

Revolutionis ing on its head, using
older and leased
aircraft, retaining

traditional sales
the Low-Cost methods and fl ying to

places its competitors

have ignored. This
Airline Model profi ts and expansion,
approach has led to

as Lee Cross reports.

n 2002, businessman Carlos Muñoz Following fi nancial di culties, it was ‘The airline of the European regional
saw a gap in the market in southwest announced in June 2008 that Vueling capitals’ uniting small- and medium-sized
Europe to establish a low-cost airline would merge with its closest rival, Clickair, cities that were previously unserved by the
Ito rival the growing presence of in an attempt to establish a more robust bigger LCCs.
Ryanair and easyJet. With help from low-cost airline in the highly competitive “It is important to talk about Vueling
business partner Lázaro Ros, the pair Spanish market. Muñoz and Ros had already before we talk about Volotea,” CEO Carlos
created Vueling, which took to the skies stepped down from their roles as CEO and Muñoz told Aviation News. “Volotea actually
in July 2004. COO respectively in November 2007, but came as a consequence of Vueling, from
Using the tried-and-tested low-cost remained on the board of directors. the shortcomings we discovered with routes
carrier (LCC) model, the airline became In 2011, Muñoz and Ros, along with launched outside of our core markets. These
one of the fastest-growing in Europe, two other former Vueling managers and a routes – [those] that did not touch our
establishing hubs at Barcelona and Madrid, starting capital of €65m, set up a new carrier ‘hubs’ – did not work for Vueling fi nancially,
later expanding to Paris and Seville. called Volotea with the aim of becoming but demand for these fl ights was there.”

36 AVIATION NEWS FEBRUARY 2020

36-40_voloteaDC.mf.indd 36 08/01/2020 12:13