Saturday 9 June 2018

SPAIN: Vueling Airlines Launches Flights From Palma de Mallorca To Stuttgart, Vienna And Lisbon

Vueling launched three new routes from Palma de Mallorca (PMI) in the last week, with services commencing to Stuttgart (STR) and Vienna (VIE) on 1 June, and to Lisbon (LIS) on 2 June.

The latter 1,025-kilometre connection to the Portuguese capital city will be operated twice-weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays and there is no direct competition.

The 1,138-kilometre link to Stuttgart and the 1,456-kilometre route to Vienna will both be operated four times weekly and there is incumbent competition on each airport pair.

The Stuttgart route is already operated by Laudamotion, Eurowings, TUIfly, Condor, easyJet and Ryanair, with these six carriers providing a combined 89 weekly flights.

The Vienna sector is currently flown by Laudamotion and Eurowings which offer a combined 39 rotations.

Commenting on the new link to Palma de Mallorca Julian Jäger, Joint CEO and COO of Vienna Airport said: Thanks to the new flight connection, passengers will enjoy an even broader travel offering to Spain’s most popular holiday island.

The island offers a change of scene to travellers of all ages, whether for a city trip, beach holiday or sport vacation.

Vueling has added two more sectors to its domestic network in the last seven days, with two new sectors from Palma de Mallorca (PMI), its fourth biggest operation after Barcelona, Rome Fiumicino and Paris Orly.

On 15 June, the IAG-owned subsidiary started a three times weekly rotation to Jerez (XRY).

The next day it began a similar frequency on the 393-kilometre city pair to Zaragoza (ZAZ).

Both sectors will be flown by the airline’s A320 fleet, with the latter route to Zaragoza facing direct competition from Air Europa (three times weekly) and Volotea (twice-weekly).

This summer Vueling will serve 26 destinations non-stop from Palma de Mallorca. This is one more than last summer.

However, while five new destinations have been added the others being Florence, Lille and Zurich, four have been dropped: Algiers, Brussels, Catania and Turin.

Vueling Airlines, S.A. is a Spanish low-cost airline based at El Prat de Llobregat in Greater Barcelona with hubs in Barcelona–El Prat Airport and Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy.

Its name comes from the Spanish word vuelo, which means flight. It is the largest airline in Spain by fleet size and the number of destinations.

There are thirteen additional bases at A Coruna, Alicante, Amsterdam, Bilbao, Florence, Madrid, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Orly, Santiago de Compostela, Seville and Valencia.

A fifteenth summer seasonal base is located at Ibiza.

Vueling serves over 100 destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In 2015, the airline carried more than 24 million passengers, with a load factor of 81%.

MTV has since ended.

In November 2010, Vueling announced a new base at Toulouse Airport in France from April 2011, followed in December 2010 by the announcement of a new base in Amsterdam, also to open during April 2011.

The Toulouse base opened on 23 April 2011, but has since closed.

In January 2011, further expansion was announced with Vueling adding a further nine aircraft to its fleet, including Airbus A319 aircraft.

Six Airbus A320s were delivered between April and June 2011, whilst the remaining two A320s were delivered by the end of 2011.

On 21 March 2012, it was announced by CEO Alex Cruz that Rome would be added as a new base.

The base launched on 25 March 2012 with one aircraft based there, the airline has since expanded at Rome with numerous new destinations.

On 5 December 2012, Vueling announced the opening of a new base of operations in Florence, the carrier is to base one aircraft there and serve four new European destinations.

Ten months later, on 25 October 2013, Vueling launched Florence-Catania, its first domestic route in Italy.

Since November 2013, the airline has continued to expand from its hub at Barcelona.

On 6 November 2013, Vueling announced a new base with one aircraft in Brussels, with seven new destinations from May 2014, in addition to the four previous routes from Brussels.

Also in November 2013, Vueling announced an expansion of its base at Rome-Fiumicino. From mid-2014, 8 aircraft would be based there, operating more than 30 routes.

This expansion meant Rome-Fiumcino would become Vueling's second hub, after Barcelona.

During the first weekend of July 2016, Vueling had many delays and cancellations, which resulted in an investigation by the Spanish authorities.

During the same month, Vueling cancelled all the flights to Sheremetyevo International Airport, Vilnius Airport and Rabat–Sale Airport. Clients are able to get a refund or fly to the nearest airport where Vueling flies.

In October 2016, Vueling shut down their bases in Brussels, Catania and Palermo as part of restructuring measures.

In March 2017, Vueling cancelled its route from Barcelona to Frankfurt Airport.

On 29 December 2017, it was announced that IAG would acquire Austrian airline Niki as a subsidiary for Vueling.

In November 2012, International Airlines Group, whose subsidiary Iberia held a 45.85% stake in Vueling, offered to buy the remaining 54.15% of the company with both Iberia and IAG owning both shares and not resulting in the company being wholly owned by IAG through 100% of shares.

IAG, also the owner of British Airways, plans to use Vueling to help stem losses at Iberia.

However, market trends increased profits and improved figures from Vueling resulting in a higher share-price had made IAG's offer a significant undervaluation of the airline.

Vueling had urged its shareholders to reject IAG's offer and its shareholders had until the 8th of April 2013 to decide upon the recommendation.

On 27 March 2013, IAG improved its offer for Vueling, raising its offer per share from €7 to €9.25.

Vueling shares quickly surged following the announcement, rising by 8.8% to €9.23 following a temporary suspension as BMAD waited on an official comment from Vueling regarding the updated offer.

The acceptance period was also increased by 48 calendar days.

On 9 April 2013, the board of Vueling unanimously recommended shareholders accept an improved offer of €9.25 per share from IAG.

IAG CEO Willie Walsh confirmed that the board had recommended the new offer; however, Walsh also stated that Vueling would not be merged with Iberia, saying, Vueling will operate as a stand-alone entity in IAG group.

On 23 April 2013, IAG acquired control of Vueling which saw the recently purchased 44.66% stake by IAG merged with Iberia's existing 45.85% stake to form a 90.51% shareholding.

Vueling remains a standalone company now within the IAG and its management structure is unchanged; however, Vueling's CEO Alex Cruz reports directly to IAG CEO Willie Walsh.

Vueling has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

- British Airways

- Cathay Pacific

- Iberia

- Qatar Airways


The Vueling fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Airbus A319-100 - 5

Airbus A320-200 - 89

Airbus A321-200 - 15

Total - 107

Vueling orders for more aircrafts:

Airbus A320neo - 47


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