Volotea continues its development in Lille in 2023 with 28 routes and one new destination: Olbia

Volotea will offer 653,000 seats on its base in Lille in 2023. With 28 routes, including a new one to Olbia, it confirms its position as the leading airline at Lille Airport in terms of network.

On 8 November, Volotea presented its ambition and its novelties for the year 2023 at Lille airport. The opportunity for Céline Lacroix, Volotea’s International Development Manager, to review the development of the airline which opened its base in Lille last April and wishes to position itself as a strong regional economic player.

VOLOTEA, A MAJOR PLAYER IN LILLE

The airline for European regional capitals opened its base in Lille last April, 10 years after starting to operate at the airport. In 2023, the latter will offer more than 28 routes including 17 exclusive ones* and will offer more than 650,000 seats to and from Lille. It also announces the launch of a new exclusive route between Lille and Olbia, a coastal town in northeastern Sardinia. Tickets for this new service, provided every week on Fridays, are available from Tuesday 8 November.

Volotea will thus connect Lille with 10 French cities with little or no train service (Ajaccio, Bastia, Bordeaux, Calvi, Figari, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Perpignan, Toulouse) as well as seven countries in Europe and North Africa: Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Morocco and Portugal.

Beyond domestic flights, the airline player wishes to pursue its strategy of connectivity between the Lille region and the island destinations which will represent 35% of its seat offer. To support its growth, the company relies in particular on two Airbus A319 aircraft, suitable for short and medium-haul.

Volotea ranks first among airlines at Lille airport in terms of network and tends to position itself as a new major economic player in the region. It reaffirms its local roots with more than 70 direct jobs and 50 indirect jobs, but also its desire to support its cultural action. In September, it participated in the realisation of the three opening concerts of the 2022-2023 season of the National Orchestra of Lille via a sponsorship action, which it wishes to renew in order to encourage the cultural influence of Lille.? ?

“Lille is a very important base for Volotea, we are proud to have presented our ambitions in this territory today. Today, we are announcing a dynamic milestone for 2023 for both leisure and business tourists. Our desire is to continue our development with all the stakeholders in order to offer the inhabitants of the capital of Hauts-de-France ever more choice of destinations at ever-competitive prices,” says Céline Lacroix, International Development Manager at Volotea.

Pierre Fernemont, Development Manager of Aéroport de Lille SAS, said: “The establishment of the Volotea base last spring was an excellent signal of recovery for our activities, and the crowning achievement of many months of work with the company’s teams. We are delighted with the good results recorded by Volotea in recent months, and the positive impact in terms of jobs for our platform and for our entire region.? With the announcement of the 2023 flight programme revealed today, we are happy to be part of a virtuous development alongside Volotea.”

*17 exclusive routes: Varna, Olbia, Lanzarote, Malaga, Athens, Barcelona, ??Faro, Rome, Fuerteventura, Menorca, Montpellier, Perpignan, Palermo, Marrakech-Menara, Split, Tenerife South, Venice.

VOLOTEA IN FRANCE, HISTORIC GROWTH FORECAST IN 2023

Building on its good performance in recent months, the airline is continuing its development in France, its first market in Europe, and announces the highest offer since the start of its operations in the territory for 2023. Volotea thus plans to offer nearly 6.5 million seats in France (out of 11.7 million for its entire network), which corresponds to an increase of + 81% in its offer compared to 2019. In this dynamic, the airline will serve next year 224 destinations through its 8 bases in France (Nantes, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Lourdes) which will all benefit from new routes for the coming year.?

Volotea also tends to play a major role in the economic and social development of the territories in which it operates. This ambition will be reinforced by the arrival of new Airbus A319 and A320 to reach a total of 26 aircraft based in France, which will represent nearly 700 direct jobs and 1,400 indirect jobs.

Volotea was created to respond to a strong opportunity in Europe: the connection of small and medium-sized towns, which makes it its raison d’être. More than half of the routes it operates remain to this day without competition. In its network, the company holds 1st or 2nd place in terms of routes offered in most of its bases. In addition, the relevance and success of its strategic plan were rewarded this year by the Routes Awards – Volotea strategy during the Covid-19 crisis and more particularly the readjustment of its network with the implementation of more than 150 routes -, and was also recently awarded Europe’s Best Low-Cost Airline for two years in a row at the 2022 World Travel Awards.
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THE VOLOTERRA PROGRAMME: A TRUE ROADMAP FOR ADDRESSING THE SUSTAINABLE CHALLENGES OF THE SECTOR

The “Voloterra” programme is part of the company’s sustainable development approach and translates into concrete actions. Since taking off in 2012, Volotea has launched more than ?50 initiatives to reduce the fuel consumption of its aircraft, which has reduced its emissions per passenger and kilometre carried by more than 40%. The renewal of its fleet with cleaner and more efficient Airbus 319 and 320 aircraft is also one of the illustrations of its commitment to reducing its emissions. Volotea is also involved in the ecological transition through the introduction of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) in its aircraft and by investing in the long-term development of the first commercial electric aircraft.

In addition to implementing measures and strategies to reduce its emissions, the company is implementing numerous initiatives to offset its emissions. Volotea is the first airline to join the Vinci Airports forest carbon sink programme. Finally, within its own business model, it does not operate low occupancy flights and has an average occupancy rate of 90-95% often with no or minimal empty seats.

Lille, November 08, 2022