As of the start of this summer season, Rome Fiumicino is Vueling’s third non-Spanish operating base after Toulouse and Amsterdam. An 180-seat A320 is now based at the Italian capital airport, as here seen announced on 21 March by ADR Airport Managing Director Elia Pistola and Vueling’s CEO Alex Cruz. The immediate result of the new base, in addition to improved scheduling and increased frequencies, is the new service to Nantes in France.
- Europe’s fourth-biggest LCC Vueling is clearly determined to hold on to that position despite the 30% growth last year of fifth ranked Pegasus. It plans to grow by 20-25% this year (link to this week’s 30-second interview with CEO Alex Cruz) with some 50 new routes being launched this summer, many from its main base in Barcelona (BCN). The following table summarises the new routes launched so far with several more to be reported on next week and then a further batch of new routes starting in late-June. For competitor data on these routes please check out our free, downloadable spreadsheet of all new routes starting this week.
| Launch date | From | To | WF |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25-Mar-12 | Barcelona (BCN) | Aalborg (AAL) | 2 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Barcelona (BCN) | Berlin Tegel (TXL) | 7 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Barcelona (BCN) | Brest (BES) | 2 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Barcelona (BCN) | Copenhagen (CPH) | 11 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Barcelona (BCN) | Florence (FLR) | 7 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Barcelona (BCN) | Hamburg (HAM) | 4 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Barcelona (BCN) | Lille (LIL) | 6 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Barcelona (BCN) | Munich (MUC) | 14 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Barcelona (BCN) | Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) | 10 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Bilbao (BIO) | Lanzarote (ACE) | 2 |
| 26-Mar-12 | Bilbao (BIO) | Paris Orly (ORY) | 4 |
| 26-Mar-12 | Bilbao (BIO) | Tenerife Norte (TFN) | 3 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Nantes (NTE) | Malaga (AGP) | 3 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Nantes (NTE) | Rome Fiumicino (FCO) | 3 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Paris Orly (ORY) | Florence (FLR) | 4 |
| 25-Mar-12 | Paris Orly (ORY) | Lisbon (LIS) | 4 |
| Source: anna.aero new route database, Vueling website | |||
2 Comments
Shame no mention of Vueling’s BCN-CWL route, launched on 29th Mar in CWL – and with an impressive cake! Iaugural flight was actually cancelled due to the General Strike in Spain on that day, but the launch party suffered from no such problems and the Saturday flight, 31st Mar, successfully became the inaugural flight.
Wot, no cake?
This report was published on 28 March. The route you are referring to will be reported on in the next issue.