Page 42 - Aviation News (February 2020)

product. Where our networks do overlap we
are now reasonably comfortable with the
experience we o er to our customers.”
The airline recently spent €15m
on improving the product o er in an
ambitious plan to protect peak summer
season operations from June to August.
Flight schedules were better coordinated
and four aircraft were placed on standby
to strengthen operational integrity. The
jets located in France, Italy and Greece
allowed a faster response when needed,
increasing on-time performance to 73%
despite the continued congestion a ecting
European airspace.
A new and improved passenger
experience was also implemented at Many of the carrier’s aircraft have switched from the Irish to the Spanish register. A319, EI-FMU,
airports, the airline’s call centre and on joined Volotea in March 2016 and was re-registered EC-MCU in January 2018. Volotea
board, helping Volotea achieve its highest
satisfaction levels of 93.4% during the Volotea has had limited operations to the make them unprofi table, while helping the
summer season. This investment has really UK in the past, though currently it has no environment by reducing carbon emissions
paid o . The airline celebrated its strongest- services and there are no plans to operate and noise pollution. Volotea will provide
ever summer in 2019, carrying more than any routes. Muñoz said: “Although the UK DANTE with market analysis, technical
3m passengers with a 96% load factor and, is one of the largest aviation markets in data and a team of their own engineers to
on a July 25, 2019, fl ight from Nantes to Europe, it is well served by other carriers. So provide technical support.
Figari, it carried its 25-millionth passenger. for now it is not on our radar,” . Looking forward, Muñoz explained how
On November 4, Volotea opened its Looking further ahead, the carrier is he sees the airline developing: “I think that
newest base at Hamburg Finkenwerder, currently awaiting confi rmation from the there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll see
to operate the four-times-daily Airbus French government about the granting the same thing from us, albeit hopefully on
corporate shuttle to Toulouse. The carrier a larger scale. We are adding more routes
was awarded the contract for the next fi ve “There were a lot each year in a market that is so specialised.
years and will have two dedicated A319s Running Volotea comes with its challenges.
with a specifi c seating confi guration to of markets not Operating so many, often highly seasonal,
operate the route. routes with a small fl eet isn’t easy. But
being served which because we are the only airline dedicated to
ELECTRIC DREAMS this market, we are not pressed with having
From little acorns do mighty oaks grow Volotea has gone to follow any particular growth. We do
and, for 2020, Volotea is o ering its most on to establish and what makes sense for our business and will
extensive schedule to date. Over 9m seats continue to do so.”
are now available on 356 routes, covering operate successfully.” Given all the consolidation within
90 destinations across 14 countries. the industry, does Muñoz see Volotea
Continuing its legacy of innovation and becoming part of a larger airline group
route creation, 53 of these routes are of bi-lateral rights between France and anytime soon? “No, I don’t think so. We see
brand-new, including Strasbourg to Algeria, following the collapse of Aigle Azur ourselves remaining independent. We are
Barcelona. Eight new destinations have in September 2019. “It’s a market we are in a totally di erent market to most airlines
been added, Barcelona, Varna, Luxembourg, very interested in – if we are awarded those and therefore have di erent synergies of
Hannover, Deauville, Castellón in Spain, rights we will be growing here [Algeria], so operations. Instead, we will remain the
Thessaloniki and Kalamata. we are hopeful,” Muñoz said. market leader in our fi eld.”
More than 62,000 fl ights will be operated As part of the airline’s ‘proactive Volotea may be a small fi sh in a very big
in 2020 and new bases are to be opened in environmental policy’, Volotea recently pond, but its current strategy means that it
Naples and Lyon, further strengthening the announced a partnership with DANTE does not compete directly with its low-cost
airline’s position in the Italian and French Aeronautical in a project to look at counterparts. Continuing the innovative
markets. “We are excited and confi dent developing a 19-35-seat hybrid-electric vision Muñoz and Ros set out for the airline
about the growth we are experiencing in all passenger aircraft. This would allow the back in 2011, Volotea continues to create
the markets we operate,” the buoyant CEO airline to open even more new routes and excel in its own markets, in which it has
told Aviation News. where traditional larger aircraft would the monopoly – for now, at least.

The airline is one of only four still using the Boeing 717,
including EI-FBJ, shown landing at Olbia, Italy in June
2018. AirTeamImages.com/Daniel Nicholson

40 AVIATION NEWS FEBRUARY 2020

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