Spanish-headquartered airline Volotea is now offering flights between Munich in Germany and Montpellier in southern France, as well from Munich to Zaragoza in north-eastern Spain, using one of its Boeing 717s.
The carrier is operating two weekly flights to the destinations using the twin-engine single-aisle aircraft. Other destinations already served by Volotea from Munich Airport are Bordeaux, Mykonos and Asturias. This year the airline is launching a planned total of 58 new routes and will increase its fleet size to 32 aircraft, with its total passenger numbers in 2018 expected to hit approximately six million.
The 125-seater B717 aircraft type, in a 3+2 seat arrangement, still makes up roughly half the Spanish low-fare operator’s fleet. The carrier, which last month joined IATA, has been slowly migrating out of using B717s since late 2015 and into using leased Airbus A319s as it follows its growth strategy – but it still has approximately 17 B717s in service out of its current fleet of 30.
The carrier launched initial operations in 2012 with a fleet of B717-200s leased from Boeing and remains the only operator of B717s in Europe (Delta operates the majority in the United States). Boeing discontinued production of the aircraft in 2006 after building only 156.
