Volotea, the airline that specialises in connecting small and medium-sized cities in Europe, continues its development in France with the opening of a new base in Lourdes on July 1st. The airline will base an Airbus A319 at the airport. From the beginning of July, Volotea will operate flights to 5 destinations from Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées, including one to Paris-Orly. Other four exclusive routes on offer including: Strasbourg, Naples, Palermo, and Venice.
Lourdes - Paris OrlyVolotea will operate the Tarbes - Lourdes - Paris Orly route twice a day, in the mornings and evenings, starting July 1st, 2022.Lourdes - StrasbourgVolotea will operate twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, the Tarbes Lourdes - Strasbourg route from July 1st, 2022.Lourdes - NaplesVolotea will operate twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the Tarbes Lourdes - Naples route from July 2nd, 2022.Lourdes - PalermoVolotea will operate twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, the Tarbes Lourdes - Palermo route from July 2nd, 2022.Lourdes - VeniceVolotea will operate twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, the Tarbes Lourdes - Venice route from July 3rd, 2022.
With this public service delegation project between Tarbes-Lourdes and Paris-Orly, Volotea is making a major contribution to the development of the region by directly creating 30 jobs for flight crews, and also creating indirect jobs, particularly through the delegation of ground handling and catering services at Tarbes-Lourdes airport.
"At a time when we are witnessing the strong return of travel, we feel enormously proud of announcing the launch of our new base at Lourdes airport, our 8th base in France. We are especially happy to inaugurate the Lourdes-Paris Orly route and to be able to ensure the continuity of connectivity with Paris this summer. We also see great opportunities for growth in the region, and we are additionally offering 4 new exclusive flights for the summer season from Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees, with direct connections to Strasbourg and Italy", said Carlos Munoz, Founder and CEO of Volotea.
Volotea was founded in 2011 by Carlos Munoz and Lázaro Ros, previously founders of Vueling, is one of the fastest-growing independent airlines in Europe, increasing year on year its fleet, routes served, and seats offered. And this year it reached 40 million passengers carried in Europe.
Volotea is currently based in 17 medium-sized European capitals: Asturias, Athens, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Cagliari, Hamburg, Lille (opening next April), Lyon (opening in 2021), Marseille, Nantes, Naples, Olbia, Palermo, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Venice, and Verona. Volotea serves more than 100 cities in 16 countries, with novelties in 2022 such as Denmark, which will begin operating in May this year from Italy, and Algeria, which began last December with flights from France.
The airline will operate a fleet of between 41 in 2022, up from 36 in summer 2019. In terms of volume, Volotea will increase its seat capacity by nearly 39% compared to 2019, highlighting the strong latent demand in Europe's mid-sized city markets. Likewise, this year the airline plans to offer a total of 11 million seats, which represents an increase of almost 40% compared to 2019, the year in which the airline put 8 million tickets on sale; and increase its staff in all its markets. In June 2021, Volotea had more than 1,400 employees and by 2022 the company expects to have more than 1,600 employees in Europe.
Volotea became a full Airbus carrier in 2021, by renewing part of its fleet with aircraft from the European manufacturer. The airline, which had planned to perform this fleet unification in 2023, has advanced its plans in order to improve its cost base over the next 2-3 years and increase its network offering, with aircraft that have a higher capacity and a longer flying range. Since 2012,
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