https://www.volotea.com/en/press-room/n ... is-summer/

"Volotea, the airline of mid and small-sized European cities, continues its growth with the expansion of its fleet up to 36 aircraft in summer 2019. The airline will incorporate six new Airbus A319 to its existing Airbus 319s and Boeing 717s, which will begin to fly in the first half of this year."

Those aircrafts will be leased from "differents providers".

"The Airbus A319 is the aircraft model selected for its future growth and will allow the company to increase its passenger capacity by 25% to 156 seats and to serve longer routes."



I so far always enjoyed flying with them, and i'm happy to see them growing. Also a good opportunity to try the Boeing 717 for us european passengers.

Are they still going to phase out the 717’s? Are there any viable rumors as to who will be taking the 717s?

DeltaMD95 wrote:

Are they still going to phase out the 717’s? Are there any viable rumors as to who will be taking the 717s?

In this french article from Feb. 2018, Carlos Munoz, cofounder of Volotea said that the fleet will be A319-only in 3 years, so in 2021.

https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-servi ... 156326.php

Maybe Hawaiian will be pleased to buy them, they are not that old. But no viable rumor.

First, the OP link notes all Airbus in 2022.

Second, while the link says new A319, are these factory new or new to Volotea? With how badly the article is written, I suspect it is inherently trying to imply the first, but is instead the later.

Volotea is a low utilization airline. They simply do not have the year round flying to buy new, not even A319CEO.

That said, GE is desperate to move CFM-56-5 engines as LEAP-1A (and -1B) production is still too low. Basically, hot section casting yield is following historical norms and not GE's management promises (yield is always 25% to 30% lower in casting for new parts at this stage of LEAP production, it was atrocious last year <50%, and was rushed before). Hint, this is normal. It takes 5+ years to perfect casting yield. Then one new mold, high yield and everyone forgets the analysis, trial and error if getting there. E.g., switching the venting/filling paths has taken yield from 20% to 70% on my parts. Accelerating pour to 90%+ with heat sinks added. For another project, it was more heat sinks and a better mold pre-heat temperature.
In another, yield was best without heat sinks and using cooler molds. Oncee fixed, no one looks back as you just fix the process.

So, I speculate new to Volotea, but used A319s. But, Airbus and GE can really discount CEOs. I'd like to know which, but I bet used.

Lightsaber

lightsaber wrote:

Second, while the link says new A319, are these factory new or new to Volotea? With how badly the article is written, I suspect it is inherently trying to imply the first, but is instead the later.

Well, given it’s a press release... it’s more marketing than journalism. Although accuracy and truth in recent journalism....

But given this text:

LaunchDetected wrote:

Those aircrafts will be leased from "differents providers”

"The Airbus A319 is the aircraft model selected for its future growth and will allow the company to increase its passenger capacity by 25% to 156 seats and to serve longer routes."

Saying they’ll come from differents (uggh) providers denotes they won’t be coming new from Airbus.

And saying 156-seat.... I’m pretty confident on which airline they began flying

Aisak wrote:

And saying 156-seat.... I’m pretty confident on which airline they began flying

Dual overwing exits??

JerseyFlyer wrote:

Aisak wrote:

And saying 156-seat.... I’m pretty confident on which airline they began flying

Dual overwing exits??

Cebu Pacific?

Being serious:
Yes, G4 and Volotea compete for who can pay less for ex-EasyJet A319s. Considering how few A319s G4 has in the backlog at this time, I assume the price wasn't low enough versus older or less pedigreed A320.

Note:. Other airlines want used A319s. They just want them cheap, in quantity, and delivered on their schedule. Because of this, I expect Volotea to have no trouble sourcing all they need from that certain airline.

If LEAP deliveries could meet schedule, there would be more A319s looking for a home. Volotea needs to be patient. But not too patient (e.g., if a batch of 50 became available, expect UA, AA, and DL to bid, but only for a large batch delivered cheap on their timeline).

Besides Allegiant and Volotea, who are the active used A319 buyers?

Lightsaber

Don't think there are many airlines looking for used A319 nowadays. Most of those recent retired went to breakers almost immediately. Perhaps Airbus can cut them a good deal. There ain't many in backlog now. Single digit if I'm not mistaken.

It's nice to see them grow and to see them making a success of routes that other carriers aren't interested in.

lightsaber wrote:

Second, while the link says new A319, are these factory new or new to Volotea? With how badly the article is written, I suspect it is inherently trying to imply the first, but is instead the later.

That's the most official source i can find, Volotea is too small to bring attention from the newspapers.

"Summer 2019" is almost already there, the schedule is too short to be factory-new aircraft. Volotea never operated brand-new aircraft in its history.

Besides Allegiant and Volotea, who are the active used A319 buyers?

Lightsaber[/quote]


Delta

lightsaber wrote:

First, the OP link notes all Airbus in 2022.

Second, while the link says new A319, are these factory new or new to Volotea? With how badly the article is written, I suspect it is inherently trying to imply the first, but is instead the later.

Volotea is a low utilization airline. They simply do not have the year round flying to buy new, not even A319CEO.

That said, GE is desperate to move CFM-56-5 engines as LEAP-1A (and -1B) production is still too low. Basically, hot section casting yield is following historical norms and not GE's management promises (yield is always 25% to 30% lower in casting for new parts at this stage of LEAP production, it was atrocious last year <50%, and was rushed before). Hint, this is normal. It takes 5+ years to perfect casting yield. Then one new mold, high yield and everyone forgets the analysis, trial and error if getting there. E.g., switching the venting/filling paths has taken yield from 20% to 70% on my parts. Accelerating pour to 90%+ with heat sinks added. For another project, it was more heat sinks and a better mold pre-heat temperature.
In another, yield was best without heat sinks and using cooler molds. Oncee fixed, no one looks back as you just fix the process.

So, I speculate new to Volotea, but used A319s. But, Airbus and GE can really discount CEOs. I'd like to know which, but I bet used.

Lightsaber

Fascinating insight into the science / black magic that is engine parts casting, thanks.

Who would have thought that a couple of millennia after mankind started casting metals, and in the age of super computers and advanced metallurgy, casting high precision parts is still as much a trial and error game as it ever was...

juliuswong wrote:

Don't think there are many airlines looking for used A319 nowadays. Most of those recent retired went to breakers almost immediately. Perhaps Airbus can cut them a good deal. There ain't many in backlog now. Single digit if I'm not mistaken.

Why would airbus want to do that, they can produce a a320 or a321 in place of any a319 production slot and there is plenty demand for them.

greg85 wrote:

Besides Allegiant and Volotea, who are the active used A319 buyers?

Lightsaber

& United

greg85 wrote:

Besides Allegiant and Volotea, who are the active used A319 buyers?

Lightsaber

Delta[/quote]

Are you sure about that? Delta has the ex NW frames and that’s it so far. The only used narowbodies they have taken recently are the ex-GOL 738s.

AA on the other hand are taking former Frontier 319s.

Volotea seem like a cool little airline. Currently in the Greek islands and seeing a lot of their 717s flying around. Thought about taking a sector with them to get back to Athens and fly on a 71, however their checked bag quote was something ridiculous like €70 and more than doubled the price of the flight so I booked Olympic. Still I wish them well, they seem to have found a nice niche for steady growth.