Vueling Reveals Major Barcelona Route Expansion

Spanish carrier Vueling is to expand its network at its Barcelona El Prat Airport base to more than 100 destinations after revealing plans to launch 28 new routes in during the 2013 summer schedule. The airline will increase its base fleet in Spain’s second city from 34 to 43 units to support its route expansion, which will also spread to a number of its other European bases during next year.

In a presentation at the Contemporary Museum of Barcelona this week, titled “Dreaming, Flying, Growing,” Vueling outlined its continued maturity as it moves even further away from the traditional low-cost model to develop its own innovative strategy that moves it even closer to the business traveller. As Chief Executive Officer, Alex Cruz, highlighted in his own speech at the event; “We don’t see ourselves as low-cost carrier. We are simply a carrier with low costs.”

Showing how far it has deviated from the original low-cost model, the airline has launched a new ‘Excellence’ class, which, at what it describes as “a very competitive price,” offers a Business Class like service that provides all the elements a passenger needs to fly with flexibility, convenience and speed. This includes differentiated cabin seats, access to VIP lounges, priority boarding, ergonomic head rests and complimentary onboard snacks and refreshments.

“All these developments are part of a significant change which is now underway at the airline: a renewed communication message which reflects maturity and the current dimension of the company, without sacrificing the innovative spirit that has always characterised the brand,” said Vueling in a statement.

The centre of the new strategy is Vueling’s committed people and all of this is included in a new brand concept, ‘love the way you fly’ that it says denotes quality of service, as well as closeness and trust. Although a revised communications/advertising strategy which focuses on its people, together with a new transparent and flexible fare structure designed for business travellers are major developments in their own right, it is Vueling’s planned Barcelona network expansion that has got the most attention. The Spanish carrier will introduce 28 new routes from the city in summer 2013, its fourth consecutive year of growth at its home airport as it adds over 100 weekly flights to its network.

The main area for growth will be Germany with flights to six additional cities, while four more destinations in Italy and in Morocco will be served. The expansion spreads across the domestic market as well as to France, Scandinavia and the UK, the latter a new double daily service to London Gatwick which will see the carrier compete directly with easyJet and Monarch.

Full details of the new routes are shown in the table below, which also highlights the current competition on each of these links.

Over the past two summers, Vueling has launched a total of 45 new destinations to make El Prat the second largest airport in Europe in terms of network choice across short- and medium-range flights offered by its dominant carrier after Frankfurt, where Lufthansa has the dominant position. This will help the carrier achieve its goal to establish Barcelona as the largest European hub for short-haul connections as soon as 2014.

Of the 28 new routes for summer 2013 only nine are not currently served directly from Barcelona on a year-round scheduled basis. Of these four are brand new destinations from El Prat and comprise Dresden, Germany; Rennes, France; plus Kos and Rhodes, Greece. The other five destinations are Banjul in Gambia; Bari, Catania and Turin in Italy and Fez in Morocco.

Banjul had been served by Spanair since March 2007 but flights ended earlier this year when the carrier collapsed. Bari was served by Spanair and then Air Europa for the past two summers, while Air Nostrum and the now failed WindJet offered similar seasonal services to Catania. The Turin route has been linked to Barcelona for many years by operators including Alitalia, Alpi Eagles, Air Dolomiti and Air Nostrum but has had no service since November 2001. Meanwhile, Fez has seen just a limited service from Barcelona with Air Europa reportedly flying for a three month period from February to April 2005.

For Vueling this expansion also includes the introduction of four new countries to its network: Bulgaria, Finland, Gambia and Luxembourg, but its summer 2013 growth is not just restricted to Barcelona. The airline will also expand in other parts of its network. According to the carrier, there will be more flights from Bilbao to the Canary Islands, Greek Islands and from Berlin from the beginning of the summer.

From Málaga and Alicante, there will be more routes to France and Benelux. The Balearic Islands will have bolstered capacity on some of its existing routes, such as Palma - Moscow, increasing from three to five times a week, while there will be more frequencies from Paris Orly and Amsterdam. Finally, in the Canary Islands, schedules will be bolstered with the business traveller in mind, with Vueling offering strong connections to Northern Europe via Barcelona.