The Council of Ministers has authorized the granting of aid of 200 million euros by SEPI to the airline Volotea, which will be channeled through a participatory loan and must allow the viability of this short-haul company created by the founders from Vueling.
The aid will be channeled through the Solvency Support Fund for Strategic Companies, from which other airlines such as Air Europa, Wamos or Air Nostrum had already benefited, and it has been approved after an exhaustive analysis that has lasted six months.
Like the rest of the companies in the sector, Volotea suffered severely from the mobility restrictions caused by the pandemic and closed the 2020 financial year with losses of 122 million euros, which it halved last year with the help of a loan ICO.
The airline has launched its largest historical offer of seats and routes for this 2022 and expects to transport between 9 and 9.5 million passengers this year, approximately 32% more than the record reached in 2019, when it transported 7.6 million .
By routes, Volotea will operate 387 routes this year, 20% more than in 2019, of which half are exclusively between medium-sized cities, following its business model.
In Spain, the airline will offer a total of 94 routes, 10 of them open at the beginning of the year and 47 exclusive. In total, it will put more than 2 million seats on the market, 50% more than before the pandemic.
So far this year, Volotea has increased its workforce by 9% compared to 2021, reaching 1,600 direct jobs and nearly 8,000 indirect jobs, it has opened a new base in Lille (France) and has added six new aircraft to its fleet .
