On Wednesday late afternoon, a new airline to Luxembourg was unveiled at LuxAirport in Findel.

LuxAirport CEO, Johan Vanneste, said he was delighted that yet another airline has started to fly to and from Luxembourg, Volotea, which has its headquarters in Barcelona, Spain.

He revealed that last Tuesday the airport broke one of its own records with a total of 7,350 departing passengers.

He welcomed Mr Friart, International Development Director at Volotea, who explained that the airline started operations in 2012 and is expanding its fleet and route network very fast. It has already carried 10 million passengers and operates 243 routes between 79 European cities, with 49-50 new routes opened annually - yesterday a new route to Genoa was opened and, today, Luxembourg. 80% of routes are between cities located in France and Italy. For example, they operate 34 routes to and from Venice, 26 to and from Bordeaux, and 32 to and from Nantes.

Already this year the airline is growing by 35% on 2016 figures; it employs 875 people in total and has an estimated 2017 turnover of €310 - €320 million.

Volotea aims at connecting small and medium cities with direct flights offering competitive prices (not quite low cost, with quality assets, including comfort such as increased room between seats - leg-room).

Its fleet currently comprises 28 aircraft, both Airbus A319 (150 seats; 3,500km range) and Boeing 717 (125 seats; 2,500km range) aircraft, the latter being used for the initial flight to Luxembourg

At the press conference, Mr Friart emphasised the quality service and its reliability, as well as it now being cash-positive. In response to a question from The Luxembourg Chronicle, Mr Friart confirmed that the airline's operational load factor was 74% in 2017.

Initially Volotea will fly from Luxembourg to Nice (14,000 seats offered in 2017). He stressed that this as the first step for the Luxembourg market; if the initial route works well, they could develop other routes quickly.

Flights to and from Nice initially are twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with promotional flights available from €20 (2 cabin bags allowed).

Tickets are on sale via www.volotea.com as well as through travel agents.

Photo (L-R): Johan Vanneste, LuxAirport; Edo Friart, Volotea