Volotea has transported more than 590.000 passengers in Greece since the beginning of the operations in the country, flying to 13 Greek airports
Volotea, the airline of mid and small-sized European cities, was today in Athens to announce its new connection to Genoa, which will start next summer. Volotea continues increasing destinations in the Greek capital, operating four routes to Italy and three in Greece in 2017.
Volotea CONTINUES ITS DEVELOPMENT IN ATHENS
Volotea keeps on growing in Greece. The airline has communicated the launch of the new connection Athens-Genoa, which will start next summer, offering:
– more than 7.000 seats
– close to 60 flights
The route will start its operation next May 26th.
Operating in Greece since 2012, Volotea has transported more than 590.000 passengers so far, operating from 13 Greek airports: Athens, Cefalonia, Corfu, Heraklion/Crete, Kos, Mykonos, Mytilene, Preveza/Lefkada, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos and Zakynthos.
From Athens, Volotea will be operating next year seven routes: Bari, Mykonos, Santorini, Mytilene, Palermo, Venice and Genoa. In total, Volotea offers 115.000 seats for next year, and more than 950 flights, increasing 33% in comparison with 2016.
Valeria Rebasti, Commercial Country Manager for Italy and Greece, has expressed her satisfaction for the inauguration of this new route: “We are very happy to announce this new route between Italy and Greece. Genoa has recently been chosen as our 9th base and we are sure that the connection between this city and Athens will allow to develop even more the relationships between the 2 countries. We are persuaded that we can create traffic in both senses as Italians love Greece and we are sure that Athenians will love Genoa, a charming city which offers many attractions among which the biggest Aquarium in Europe. We are very satisfied to keep on growing in the Greek market and we are determined to keep on growing even in the future”.
On behalf of the Athens International Airport, Ioanna Papadopoulou, Director, Communications & Marketing, added: ” It is with the utmost pleasure that we welcome Volotea’s substantial development to our airport as it continues in the upcoming summer season, adding such an exciting destination as Genoa in its network, further enhancing the connectivity between Greece and Italy! Athens’ market has been developing rapidly within the last two years and Volotea’s contribution to this success, with its investment and confidence in the Athens’ market, is trully substantial. On our part, we remain firmly committed to continue supporting Volotea in order to further enhance their very successful presence in our market!”
28 aircraft in 2017
In its sixth year of operation, Volotea keeps on growing: the Company, which had two bases in 2012 (Venice and Nantes), will count on nine bases next year: Venice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Palermo, Strasbourg, Asturias, Verona and Genoa, that will be launched in 2017.
Next year Volotea will operate flights to 79 cities in 16 countries: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Israel, Albania, Moldavia, Portugal, Malta, the UK, Austria, Ireland and Luxembourg.
Volotea will add more than 40 new routes to the existing ones, reaching 240 – 250 routes next year, and expects to transport 4,4 million passengers in 2017.
Related to the fleet, Volotea will count on 28 aircraft next year. With the addition of 6 new Airbus A319s in 2017, the airline will have 10 Airbus A319s and 18 Boeing 717s. The company expects to become a 100% Airbus operator in the next few years. This strategic decision allows the company to increase its passenger capacity by 20%, from its current 125 seats to 150 seats on its new planes. Both models are recognized for their comfort and reliability, with Volotea offering reclining seats which are 5% wider than the average, with approximately 30 inches of separation between each row.
The range of the A319 also allows the company to operate routes with a longer distance and, therefore, to penetrate new markets. While the Boeing 717 has a range of 2.500km, the Airbus A319 reaches 3.500km. In addition, the punctuality rates of the A319 are in constant progression: in August, more than 80% of the flights operated with the A319 arrived on time, and in September the figures are close to 90%. As a result, client recommendation levels are close to 90%. In addition, Volotea is the fastest growing among large LCCs in Europe according to ASKs (Available seat kilometers), one of the main indicators for growth as used by the aviation industry.
The four Airbus that have joined the Company this year are based in Nantes, where one of the six new Airbuses A319s will also be based. Two of the six new aircraft will be based in Toulouse, and another three in Bordeaux. The first Airbus A319 of the 2017 line will join in January, while the rest of the aircraft will do so progressively during the first semester, until May.
