Volotea continues growing in Athens and launches four new routes

October, 8th 2019 - Volotea announces four new routes in Athens for next year to Marseille, Lyon, Split and Cagliari and offers 580,000 seats, increasing its capacity by 11%.

Since the beginning of operations in 2015, Volotea has carried close to 1 million passengers in Athens. Volotea has sped up its growth since the launch of the base on May 3rd, 2018, reinforcing its offer, adding new destinations, increasing its capacity and creating local jobs all thanks to two Boeing 717 being based at Athens airport. 

From January to September 2019, Volotea has operated close to 3,500 flights in Athens with a significant enhancement in operational performance, increasing by 9.3 basic points its punctuality rate, despite air traffic congestion in the summer period. In the first nine months of the year, an average 94% seat load was achieved, representing more than 400,000 passengers, up 56% year-on-year. Volotea is to reach its first million passengers from and to Athens in a few weeks.

Volotea is announcing today the launch of four new routes, increasing its capacity for 2020 by 11% with 60,000 additional seats, up to a total of 580,000 in Athens next year. The new routes will be operated as follows: 

•   Marseille: From April, 18,000 seats and two frequencies per week.
•   Lyon: From April, 18,000 seats and two frequencies per week.
•   Split: From April, 15,000 seats and two frequencies per week.
•   Cagliari: From June, 11,000 seats and two frequencies per week.

Altogether, in 2020, Volotea will serve from Athens a line-up of fourteen destinations: four domestic routes (Santorini, Mykonos, Heraklion and Rhodes), five destinations in Italy (Venice, Bari, Genoa, Verona and Cagliari), two city pairs to Croatia (Dubrovnik and Split) and three to France (Strasbourg, Lyon and Marseille).

“We are happy to keep growing in Athens adding new routes and including one destination new in Athens airport as Cagliari, where a new Volotea base was opened in May. The new routes in 2020 represent an enhancement to our offer with very attractive additions for a very dynamic market in which we believe there is still good room for growth” stated Carlos Muñoz, CEO and Founder at Volotea. 

The CEO of Athens International Airport, Yiannis Paraschis, stressed:

«Already in the second year of its Athens base successful operation, Volotea, with 4 new significant routes and increased capacity for the Summer 2020, continues its contribution to the enhancement of passengers’ travelling options, in both the domestic and international sectors, and, at the same time, significantly enhances our city’s connectivity! We wish to our airline partner every success, as we continue to support Volotea’s further expansion and development through our market!”

In order to promote the launch of the new destinations, a flash promotion with tickets from €9 is available until the end of October 9th for bookings to fly to Marseille, Lyon, Cagliari and Split in 2020.

VOLOTEA’S GROWTH

Volotea, the airline of European mid and small-sized cities, has carried more than 25 millionth passengers since its first flight in 2012 and 6.6 million in 2018.

In 2019, Volotea is opening 41 new routes to serve a lineup of 319 routes, operating flights to more than 80 mid and small-sized European cities in 13 countries: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Malta, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg and Morocco. The airline expects to carry between 7.5 and 8 million passengers in 2019.

Volotea has currently thirteen bases: Venice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Palermo, Strasbourg, Asturias, Verona, Toulouse, Genoa, Bilbao, Marseille and Athens (these last three inaugurated in 2018) and Cagliari, recently inaugurated on May 30th, 2019.

Volotea employs over 1,300 people in 2019 capitalizing on its activity growth. This year 200 new positions have been created.

In 2019, Volotea operates its network with 36 aircraft, Boeing 717s, and Airbus A319s, after adding six additional aircraft in 2019. Both models are recognized for their comfort and reliability, with Volotea offering reclining seats which are 5% wider than the average in airlines. 

The Airbus A319 is the aircraft model selected for its future growth and will allow the company to increase its passenger capacity by 25% to 156 seats and to serve longer routes. 

In 2019, Volotea will launch new services and develop new management developments to continue increasing customers’ satisfaction. Volotea achieves a 93,4% recommendation rate among its clients.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report