Sales partnership between Eurowings and Volotea

• Nonstop connections will be offered in parallel on both airlines' websites
• Eurowings expands pan-European focus with southern distribution partner
• New non-stop destinations for Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Stuttgart
• Volotea connects eight new routes to its bases in France and Italy
• CEO Jens Bischof: “Strengthening the ‘Euro’ in our Eurowings brand name”
• Volotea CEO Carlos Muñoz: “Connecting important but often underserved cities”

Eurowings and the Spanish airline Volotea have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enter into a sales partnership. The cooperation is set to cover more than 140 European routes operated by both airlines without overlap, including more than 100 routes operated by Eurowings and around 40 operated by Volotea.

The connections also include plans for eight new routes flown by Volotea, connecting German airports such as Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Stuttgart directly with French and Italian cities. As a result, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes, Florence and Verona will also be reached with direct flights in the future. With this, the two airlines are significantly broadening their pan-European portfolio for customers.

Volotea is one of the fastest growing airlines in Europe: founded in 2011, the Barcelona-based company now flies to more than 100 destinations in 16 countries. In Germany, the airline has been operating the weekly Airbus-internal factory shuttle between the Hamburg and Toulouse locations since 2019. With the sales partnership, Volotea is also offering scheduled flights in Germany for the first time.

At the same time, Eurowings intends to open its distribution channels to Volotea with its focus on smaller and medium-sized destinations in France and Italy. With the planned mutual distribution agreement, both Eurowings passengers and Volotea customers would benefit from the visibility of more than 140 connections on the websites of both airlines. This way, Eurowings and Volotea would improve the offer to their passengers, providing access to a significantly wider range of travel options throughout Europe.

New connections

In the context of the planned connections, Volotea will open eight new routes to/from Germany, connecting Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Stuttgart directly with its bases in Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes (all in France), Florence and Verona (both in Italy). These new routes will operate twice weekly and have a capacity of around 60,000 seats.

New routes from 26 May 2023:

• Berlin-Verona
• Düsseldorf-Bordeaux
• Stuttgart-Bordeaux

New routes from 10 and 12 October 2023:

• Berlin-Lyon
• Hamburg-Bordeaux
• Hamburg-Florence
• Hamburg-Lyon
• Stuttgart-Nantes

Volotea has announced that tickets on the newly established routes will go on sale today on the Volotea website www.volotea.com. Once Volotea and Eurowings have reached a binding agreement on the sales cooperation, tickets will also be sold on the Eurowings website www.eurowings.com and on all usual distribution channels. This is intended for the end of April.

Jens Bischof, CEO of Eurowings: “Step by step, we are strengthening the 'Euro' in our Eurowings brand name. Our roots are in Germany, but we are consistently expanding our pan-European presence with this partnership. Having developed Eurowings towards Eastern and Northern Europe with recently opened bases in Prague and Stockholm, the expansion of our route portfolio towards Southern Europe is the next step. The planned mutual sales cooperation with Volotea will open up numerous new destinations in France and Italy for our customers, as well as attractive connections within Southern Europe.”

Carlos Muñoz, founder and CEO of Volotea: “We are very pleased to launch our commercial activities in Germany with a strong distribution partner and important player in the country. The planned strategic agreement with Eurowings is significant and unique, covering more than 140 routes with no overlap and signals the potential of a stronger, long-term partnership. With eight new destinations, we can also present our distinctive offer to the German public. Volotea connects important but often underserved medium-sized cities without stopovers that make traveling easy. With connections from Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Stuttgart to cities such as Bordeaux or Florence, we are also responding to new customer requests.”

About Eurowings

Eurowings is the value airline of the Lufthansa Group and thus part of Europe's largest airline group. With its clear positioning as Europe's value carrier for leisure and business travellers, Eurowings clearly distinguishes itself from the ultra-low-cost carrier segment, allowing its customers to fly affordably and flexibly with numerous booking options and extras as well as customer-friendly services.

With its value concept, the German airline is responding to the core needs of today's air travellers more strongly than ever: even greater flexibility, comfort and sustainability. Eurowings offers direct flights to more than 140 destinations within Europe. With 11 international bases – including Mallorca as Europe's number one vacation island – the Lufthansa subsidiary is one of the largest vacation airlines in Europe. It currently has a fleet of around 100 aircraft and employs more than 4,000 people.

About Volotea

Volotea was founded in 2011 by Carlos Muñoz and Lázaro Ros, previous founders of Vueling. It is one of the fastest-growing independent airlines in Europe in the last decade, increasing its fleet, routes served, and seats offered year-on-year. The airline will celebrate a milestone of carrying 50 million passengers this year.

Volotea reaches more than 100 airports and is currently based in 19 medium-sized European capitals: Asturias, Athens, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Cagliari, Florence, Hamburg, Lille, Lyon, Lourdes, Marseille, Nantes, Naples, Olbia, Palermo, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Venice, and Verona.

This year, Volotea will operate up to 400 routes (more than half exclusive), offer more than 11.5M seats (+41 per cent versus 2019), and fly approximately 70,000 flights. The airline operates a fleet of 41 Airbus A319 and A320.

Volotea employs 1,700 people and actively contributes to the economic development and cultural landscape of the territories where it is based through sponsorship projects.

Volotea has won, for the second year in a row, the award as ‘Europe’s Leading Low-Fares Airline’ at the 2022 World Travel Awards, an awards organization recognizing excellence in the transportation and tourism industry worldwide.