London-Luton becomes the 12th airport served by Vueling in the UK and Ireland.
The airline will fly to an additional 12 new destinations from the UK next summer.
Vueling is about to land for the first time at London-Luton, where the airline will offer direct services to Barcelona and Amsterdam during the 2016 summer season. The double daily Barcelona flights will be launched on March 17th, with a total of 110,800 seats on sale during the season. Flights to Amsterdam, which will be a daily service during April and double daily from May on, will begin on March 18th with more than 145,400 seats offered. Both routes will be operated with Airbus A320 aircraft.
Vueling also operates routes from London-Gatwick and London-Heathrow. From Gatwick, the airline currently flies to Barcelona, Bilbao, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Rome-Fiumicino and Florence. From Heathrow, the Spanish carrier operates routes to Barcelona and La Coruña.
With London-Luton, Vueling will operate from a total of 12 airports in the UK and Ireland with 25 routes. The others are Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Dublin.
Vueling will offer a total of 1.854.500 seats in the UK and Ireland in summer 2016, a 99% increase from last summer. The airline will also offer customers in the UK an additional 12 destinations: Luton to Barcelona, and Amsterdam, Gatwick to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Edinburgh to Alicante, Paris-Orly, and Rome-Fiumicino, Manchester to Alicante and Rome-Fiumicino, Birmingham to Alicante, Leeds to Barcelona, Liverpool to Barcelona, and Newcastle to Barcelona.
Vueling´s Strategy Director Fernando Estrada said, “Today Vueling proudly announces two new routes from London-Luton airport and with these additions we reinforce Vueling´s presence in the British market. Having reached 3 million passengers transported in the UK shows that Vueling is succeeding in challenging the concepts of low cost carriers, offering a superior product and exceptional services with low fares and a wide range of services, fit for the holidaymakers and the business passengers”.
Nick Barton, CEO of LLA, commented: “The arrival of Vueling to LLA is another major coup for the airport. The new routes to Barcelona and Amsterdam will provide excellent frequency for business travellers, whilst creating yet more options for leisure travellers to these major city destinations. Vueling join the airport at an exciting time, with development underway our aim is to offer the best possible experience for our passengers whilst retaining the speed and convenience of using LLA.”
Timetable new routes 2016
First flight | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | |
London-Luton – Barcelona | March 17 | – | – | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
London-Luton – Amsterdam | March 18 | 7 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
London-Gatwick – Paris-CDG | May 5 | – | 11 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
Edinburgh – Rome | March 29 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Edinburgh – Paris-Orly | March 29 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Edinburgh – Alicante | June 16 | – | – | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Manchester – Rome | June 24 | – | – | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Manchester – Alicante | June 17 | – | – | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Birmingham – Alicante | June 17 | – | – | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Leeds – Barcelona | March 28 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Liverpool – Barcelona | March 27 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Newcastle – Barcelona | March 28 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
3 million passengers transported in the UK
Vueling has recently reached 3 million passengers transported in the UK. Part of International Airlines Group (IAG), Vueling was founded in 2004 and its first flight from a British airport was in April 2009, operating the route between London-Heathrow and the Galician city of La Coruña.
Code sharing
Vueling and its IAG partner British Airways announced last September the final provision of their code-sharing agreement, reached in 2014 by launching direct sales of BA flights via the Barcelona-based Vueling’s website (www.Vueling.com) and call centre. Customers of both airlines are able to book their flights from either one, including combined flights using both carriers on direct routes between London and major European cities. The arrangement makes Vueling the first of Europe’s low-cost airlines to sell flights by other carriers, which will strengthen its commercial structure while tightening links with BA.
Last year Vueling and British Airways announced the agreement under which BA can now apply its flight codes to more than 170 Vueling flights on 61 routes. Of this total, 31 are international routes from Spain (18 to Italy, seven to the UK, and six to Scandinavia) and 11 are domestic Italian flights from Rome-Fiumicino and Florence.
Vueling also shares flight codes with Iberia, another IAG unit, under an agreement allowing the Madrid-based airline to sell Vueling flights under the IB code, including domestic and international routes from Barcelona, domestic routes in Italy, and some other routes such as Paris-Lisbon and Paris-Rome.
In addition, since 2014 Vueling has interline agreements with Qatar Airways and American Airlines, whereby it operates as a feeder of their long-haul routes from its hub, making Barcelona a major gateway for passengers flying between Qatar or the United States and Europe.
Barcelona, December 17 2015
