Vueling
| File:Vueling Airlines.jpg | |||||||
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| Founded | 2004 | ||||||
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| Hubs | El Prat International Airport | ||||||
| Focus cities | Barajas International Airport Valencia Airport | ||||||
| Fleet size | 14 | ||||||
| Destinations | 19 | ||||||
| Headquarters | Barcelona, Spain | ||||||
| Key people | Carlos Muñoz (CEO)
Lazaro Ros (COO) Eduardo Fairen (DFO) | ||||||
| Website | http://www.vueling.com | ||||||
Vueling Airlines is a low-fare airline based in Barcelona, Spain. It links to many destinations in Europe and also the western Mediterranean. Its main base is Barcelona Airport, with additional hubs at Valencia Airport and Madrid Airport.
History
The airline idea started late 2002 when Mrs. Sue Smith and Cpt.Eduardo Fairen have the idea to start a low cost operator in Spain. They start looking for people interested in the idea and meet Carlos Muñoz. He shows a great enthusiasm and joins Lazaro Ros and both founded EVIA. The airline was established in 2004 and started operations on 1 July 2004. It is owned by Apax Partners (39%), Inversiones Hemisferio (Grupo Planeta) (30%), management team (23%) and private investors (7%).
On 1 March 2005 it was announced that International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) had placed six new Airbus A320 aircraft on six year lease terms with Vueling Airlines, for delivery between April and December 2006.
Destinations
Vueling Airlines operates the following services (at August 2006):
- Domestic scheduled destinations: Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Granada, Ibiza, Madrid, Málaga, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca, Santiago de Compostela, Seville and Valencia.
- International scheduled destinations: Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, Milan, Paris, Rome and Venice.
Fleet
The Vueling Airlines fleet consists of 14 Airbus A320-200 aircraft (at June 2006).
In March 2006, the average age of Vueling fleet is 1.4 years old.
Particularities
- Vueling flies only to the principal airports of each destination.
- It provides no free catering services, as commonly seen in low-cost airlines. Nevertheless, food and drink can be bought at prices less than those found in other low-cost carriers.
- Vueling seeks to differentiate itself from the "low-cost" phenomenon. It claims it is a "New Generation Airline."
- Unlike most other low-cost airlines, Vueling assigns seats to its passengers. Its modern booking system even allows to choose a specific seat while buying the ticket online. No additional fees are collected for using a credit card.
- It allows on-line check-in, the passenger prints his own ticket.
- It was chosen the second-best new airline of 2005, only surpassed by Air Berlin.
- In December of 2005 it signed a contract with Amadeus to publish its flies in its GDS. This agreement allows traditional travel agencies to sell Vueling tickets. The prices seen using this method are generally higher than online ones.