11 April 2023

5 questions to Valeria Rebasti

Volotea's International Market Director illustrates the news of Summer 2023

Volotea is an independent company that, in the last 10 years, has grown rapidly in Europe

And this year it celebrated the milestone of 50 million passengers transported.

In addition, it won the "Europe's Leading Low-Fares Airline" Award at the World Travel Awards 2022 for the second year in a row, an organization that recognizes excellence in the transport and tourism sector globally.

What are the new destinations planned for the 2023 summer season?

Italy continues to be one of our main markets and, precisely for this reason, we have invested heavily locally, offering new routes in almost all the Italian airports where we are present. In Milan Bergamo we have launched 3 new routes to Lyon, Nantes and Oviedo.

The new flight to Berlin will soon take off in Verona, while we will also connect Venice with Oviedo. In Olbia we take to the track with 10 new routes to Florence, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Bilbao, Paris Orly, Lille, Nice, Toulouse and Marseille, while there are 3 important new routes departing from Cagliari to Athens, Barcelona and Brindisi. In Naples we take to the track with a new route to Karpathos, in Bari and Palermo with 1 new connection to Florence. In Catania there are 2 new connections to Lourdes and Nantes, while from Rome Fiumicino it will also be possible to take off to Lourdes and Bilbao. From Brindisi we have announced a new flight to Cagliari. In Florence, where we have recently inaugurated our new base, we have launched 11 new connections to Lyon, Toulouse, Nantes, Marseille, Bilbao, Palermo, Catania, Bari, Cagliari, Olbia and Hamburg. We are really ready to set course for the summer.

Valeria Rebasti International Market Director di Volotea

02. What are your bases and how many destinations do they connect?

Our international network includes about 100 airports, 19 of which are bases: 7 are in Italy (Venice, Verona, Palermo, Naples, Cagliari, Olbia and Florence, recently inaugurated), 8 in France (Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Lourdes, Marseille, Nantes, Strasbourg and Toulouse), 2 in Spain (Asturias and Bilbao), 1 in Greece (Athens) and 1 in Germany (Hamburg). For 2023, we will operate up to 400 routes from our bases (more than half exclusively), offering around 12 million seats.

03. How is Volotea's fleet composed and what services does it offer to passengers before and during the flight?

We became a full Airbus carrier in 2021, renewing part of our fleet. We had planned to achieve this goal in 2023, but we have anticipated our plans, optimizing costs for the coming years and increasing our network-wide offering, thanks to aircraft with greater transport capacity and a longer flight range. Today, we have a modern and environmentally friendly fleet of 41 Airbus (A319 and A320), which is enabling us to improve our carbon footprint. We offer our passengers numerous options, including Megavolotea, the program that offers participating customers a series of benefits such as the possibility of early access to offers, discounts on flights, baggage and much more.

04. Is your company working towards sustainable aviation, helping to reduce CO2 emissions per passenger?

Since its founding in 2012, we have carried out more than 50 sustainability actions, thanks to which we have reduced our carbon footprint per passenger kilometre. We are committed to offsetting 25% of total CO₂ emissions by 2025. In 2022, we introduced sustainable fuels to power our aircraft, and we are working with the manufacturing and industrial sectors to ensure that these fuels – which are currently difficult to access – can be developed and deployed on a large scale in the shortest possible time. In addition, in support of the ecological transition, Volotea is working on an ambitious project aimed at developing the first 100% electric aircraft, which will be certified for flight in the coming years. Finally, Volotea recently launched Voloterra, its sustainability program.

05. Why do passengers have to choose Volotea?

Our mission is to connect small and medium-sized European cities and I believe that this is what has won over our customers. What is appreciated most by our passengers are the connections, always direct and non-stop, between small and medium-sized destinations that, without us, would not have direct connections. In addition, we offer all passengers a comfortable flight experience, with always competitive fares and convenient schedules.

Interview by Angela Trivigno

Updated: 03.05.2023

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