Page 39 - Aviation News (February 2020)

in the world still operating them, along
with Delta, Hawaiian and Qantas Link,
so sourcing them for expansion proved
di cult. “There were simply no more 717s
available on the market,” said Muñoz.
Enter the Airbus A319, introduced to
the fl eet on March 9, 2016. The twinjet’s
150/156-seat confi guration o ered an
increase in passenger capacity of 20% over
the 717. “For many airlines the A319 is too
small, but for us it works well,” said Muñoz.
“It’s a great aircraft with great performance
and economics, and there is a large fl eet
available. Our markets have now matured
enough to support this upsizing in capacity.”
Currently, Volotea’s fl eet stands at 19
A319s and 16 717s. As leases expire, the 717
will be retired, with three leaving in 2020.
Muñoz claimed: “Moving forward, we intend
to become an all A319 operator by quarter
four of 2022.”
Rather than placing big orders for brand-
new jets like some of its rivals, Volotea uses
the secondhand leasing market to source
its aircraft: “Our fl eet is typically ten to 12
years old, which is comparable with most
legacy carriers around the world. These
secondhand jets are as good as new, but
have much lower lease prices, which means
we can keep our costs down, allowing
us to make the routes we serve more
economically viable.”
The other adaptation of the model was
in the way Volotea sells its seats, choosing
to move away from the ‘web-only’ focus of
most LCCs: “In terms of our seat sales, our
distribution system is very unusual when
compared to other low-cost airlines in
Europe – 55-60% are sold on our website,
but we still use travel agents and tour
operators for the rest, plus a small bit of
charter work.”

INITIAL TURBULENCE
With an adapted low-cost model and a
fl eet of just two 717 aircraft, the airline took
to the skies from its fi rst base, Venice, on
April 5, 2012, with routes within Italy to
Brindisi, Cagliari and Palermo. Five more
717s joined the fl eet for summer 2012 and
Above: Carlos Muñoz has co-founded two airlines, Vueling and Volotea, and today is the CEO of new bases were opened in Nantes and
the latter. Volotea Bordeaux, France.
Of course there is always a danger that
Main photo: Volotea serves airports in 13 countries across Europe. Its name was inspired when you mess with a tried and tested
by ‘volotear’ a word coined by poet Pablo Neruda as a simplifi ed form of the Spanish verb formula that it could backfi re, and Volotea
‘revolotear’, meaning to swirl around. AirTeamImages.com/Simone Ciaralli
learnt this only too well. Muñoz described
the challenges during that fi rst year: “We
EVOLUTION OF THE 717 seemed an unusual choice for an LCC, met with a humongous failure initially. We
LOW-COST MODEL it actually became Volotea’s secret weapon. launched 90 routes in year one and, by the
Muñoz and his team at the new airline’s HQ Muñoz explained: “The 717 was perfect for end, we had closed 40 of them. We were
in Asturias, Spain, were now tasked with us initially. With 125 seats, it allows us to innovating at the time, evolving the low-
making their venture successful in these serve our markets e ciently”. cost model – we needed to experiment and
smaller markets. “From what we had learned Extremely popular with passengers with see what worked.”
with Vueling we knew that to make Volotea its 2+3 seating confi guration providing The airline pushed on and, by 2015, they
work we would have to fl ip the low-cost only one middle seat per row, the 717 also had grown to establish seven bases across
model as we all know it on its head,” Muñoz has excellent reliability, with a dispatch Europe: Venice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Palermo,
explained, “although low-cost will always be rate of more than 99%, as well as low Strasbourg, Asturias and Verona, with an
in our blood”. maintenance costs. eighth at Toulouse opening in March 2016.
The fi rst adaptation of the model was However, just 156 of these jets were By its third year, Volotea was generating
their choice of aircraft. While the Boeing built and Volotea is one of only four airlines cash and was in the black. “Not hugely,

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