Meet Volotea: Spain's new airline

After months of rumors, we finally have a public announcement: Spain's new startup airline is called Volotea.

You have to be brave to start a new airline in Spain in the current economic climate, but its founders have done it before and their ability to pull an airline off the ground is beyond any doubt: Carlos Muñoz and Lázaro Ros were the founders of Vueling (now under Iberia's wings) whereas Román Pané used to be a manging director at Futura (a now-defunct Spanish charter carrier). They are backed by CCMP Capital (investor also in JetBlue).

There is not much information about the scope of the project and its planned roll-out, but all points towards the new Barcelona-based airline operating a regional network in Spain, along the lines of UK's Flybe or Finland's Blue1. This market niche, relatively shielded from the two LCC giants, has seen significant corporate activity recently, with Flybe's leading the way.

Volotea will be competing with Air Nostrum (that operates regional flights on behalf of Iberia) and with Spain's still growing high speed rail network.

If you wish to see what Volotea's livery will look like there are some pictures on airliners.net (renewed chances for all those, like me, still waiting to fly for the first time on a Boeing 717!)

And of course, there is a Twitter account too, although it does not seem to have any public activity yet...

George Soros invests in Flybe as the British regional airline readies its expansion plans

Pointing upwards! (Picture: Wikipedia)

What is the fastest way to become a millionaire? Start as a billionaire and invest in an airline....! but it looks like billionaire George Soros would rather disagree!

Well, true, a £7M. investment in Flybe is not even pocket money for the famous tycoon (it will buy him around 3.4% of the company), however I find it significant that such an experienced and powerful investor, that managed to sink the pound sterling in 1992, is backing Flybe at this time, when ambitious expansion plans are under way at the British regional airline. Flybe has just floated in the stockmarket and plans to use the proceeds of the flotation to double its fleet and possibly open new bases in Europe or acquire another regional airline, another sign of confidence in the future, is that Flybe's current owners are not planning to cash their money in, at least not in the short term.

There is no lack of examples to support the old joke about the dubious profitability of airline investment (even Warren Buffett got caught on this one!), however, it is remarkable how Flybe has been able to build its niche business in a market strongly dominated by behemoths like Ryanair, Easyjet and BA, or I should say, precisely by being able to exploit the markets gaps these airlines were leaving: as opposed to BA and its Heathrow focus, Flybe has an extensive regional network, as opposed to Ryanair and Easyjet, Flybe caters mainly to the business traveller...will it be able to replicate its business model in the continent? in any case, it looks like we are going to get used to hearing about Flybe more often, as the British regional champion is onto something big!