The Spanish low cost carrier of which Aegean owns more than 20% has filed for pre-insolvency protection with a Spanish Court in Barcelona.
The airline now has three to six months to renegotiate is debt obligations that currently stand at 356M euros.
You can access Volotea here.
The airline’s equity is close to 80M euros negative, and it tried to illegally assess fuel surcharges on existing tickets this year due to an extra 150M euros in fuel costs.
The airline currently operates a fleet of 44 to 45 Airbus planes that it plans to downsize to 30 to 35 (downsizing to profitability rarely works).
The flights currently operate as scheduled, but downsizing the fleet by a third will obviously lead to route cancellations and fewer frequencies.
Passengers are, however, covered by European Union Air Passenger Rights EC 261/2004, which requires Volotea to rebook passengers on canceled flights onto other airlines, such as Air France and ITA Airways, at Volotea’s expense.
Obviously, if this pre-insolvency doesn’t work, a total liquidation could follow down the road, and these are not uncommon in Europe.
Make sure you can buy Volotea flights with a credit card that covers the purchase price in case the airline folds.
Conclusion
Volotea flies point-to-point routes that other airlines don’t operate, such as the only Volotea flight I have ever taken from Mykonos to Venice.
Aegean partially owns Volotea, but according to them, there are no plans to take over the entire airline.