Vueling to Introduce Eleven New Summer Routes from Barcelona Base

Spanish carrier Vueling Airlines is to further expand its network from its Barcelona El Prat Airport base during summer 2012 with flights to eleven additional estinations. The low-cost carrier is already the largest operator from Spain’s second city with over 600 weekly flights to 35 destinations this winter, offering around 95,000 seats in each direction. It currently has a 23.0 per cent share of the total capacity but is seeing increasing competition from its budget airline rivals such as easyJet and Ryanair.

Its expanded schedule for summer 2012 will see the introduction of a number of new markets across Europe, including cities in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. These flights will be served with between two and seven rotations a week. The new destinations comprise Aalborg, Brest, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Florence, Groningen, Lyon, Marseille, Munich, Stockholm and Strasbourg.

A number of these are new markets from Barcelona El Prat, although Copenhagen, Lyon, Marseille, Munich and Stockholm are already served by other carriers. One of the most interesting new routes is Cardiff, Vueling’s only direct link to the UK from its home base. Although there are no direct links between Cardiff and Barcelona, easyJet does offer indirect competition from Bristol.

“We are delighted to be increasing our network with these flights. They have been on the agenda for some time and we are delighted to add them to Vueling’s network,” said Alex Cruz, Chief Executive Officer, Vueling Airlines. “We will be able to fulfill the local catchment’s requirement for direct flights to Barcelona for leisure and business travellers as well as possible connections to a variety of our other destinations.”