Low-cost Volotea, which specializes in flights to mid- and smaller‐sized European cities, on Thursday inaugurated its 12th European base, and specifically at the Athens International Airport.
In the first phase, Volotea will permanently base a Boeing 717 and hire 30 local staff in Athens.
Volotea began operating in Athens in 2015, and has so far has carried more than 200,000 passengers, increasing its number of customers year-on-year. In 2017, the Spain-based airline carried 108,000 passengers from Athens, up by 78 percent in comparison to the previous year.
Volotea founder and CEO Carlos Muñoz and Athens International Airport CEO Yiannis Paraschis were on hand for the event.
For the current year, Volotea announced that it will offer 337,000 seats, increasing capacity by 173 percent. The airline will operate two new routes to Verona (starting on May 31, 2018) and Iraklio, Crete (which began last week). The Iraklio (Herakleion) route is operating daily, similar to flights to Mykonos and Santorini.
From Athens, Volotea flies to five destinations in Italy – Venice, Bari, Genoa, Palermo and from this month onwards also to Verona – and to three domestic routes – Santorini, Mykonos and Iraklio.
“We think that, on top our competitive prices, the Athens public will appreciate the Volotea experience in comfortable Boeing 717s, with Greek local staff, and from Athens main terminal”, Muñoz said.
To celebrate its new routes, Volotea announced a special promotion on its website, in which passengers are able to buy tickets beginning from €9 over the next 48 hours for the two new destinations.
