Flight Review: flying on Volotea's A320 for the first time
Flight#: V72135 / V72134
From: Barcelona (BCN)
To: Bordeaux-Merignac (BOD)
(and back)
Flight time: 1h
Aircraft: Airbus A320
This is an airline which I have been following closely since its very, very early days, to the point that, I think, I was their second follower on Twitter (now X) even before they had officially launched. Not only that, but, a few years ago I also had the chance to work as a consultant in some projects involving this airline and got to know it (and the very talented team that manages it) pretty well.
BUT curiously enough, this was my very first flight (two, actually) ever with them! So at long last I am able to write the corresponding Volotea flight review!
For those that are not familiar with it, Volotea defines itself as the airline of Europe’s small and medium sized cities. It was founded in 2011 by Carlos Muñoz, an airline entrepreneur who had previously co-founded Vueling (now part of the IAG Group) and its focus is on conneting secondary airports between them and avoiding the major hubs.
Volotea’s business model is that of a low cost airline, but aiming to provide a nice experience and with a number of ancillaries available to “hybridise” the experience. Those of you that are based in the US may find some similarities with the model of Breeze Airways, which, actually, launched some time after Volotea.
Pre-flight experience
Let’s start by the booking experience, which was really smooth. Volotea is a native digital airline and has a very competent digital team and this shows.
It also has a subscription/club service for frequent flyers called “Megavolotea” which comes in two tiers and provides a number of advantages and fare discounts to members.
Interestingly, it offers a 15-day free trial with no strings attached. This makes sense if you consider that on many of the, rather thin, routes that it operates, Volotea is often the only option. Therefore, people that for some reason, VFR or work, fly those routes regularly, tend to develop a relationship with the airline.
Boarding at both airports (Barcelona and Bordeaux) was also pretty efficient and done in sequence: 1) priority boarding, 2) The half of the cabin at the back 3) The half of the cabin at the front.
The Volotea inflight experience
There is only so much you can do on a one hour flight, but will try to summarize it here.
In fact, I had the chance to experience both a “regular” seat at the back of the cabin as well as a first row seat (which sells at a premium).
The cabin is typical of a low cost carrier: slim, leather-upholstered seats. The cabin was pretty clean and neat throughout.
I also quite like the overall decor, in a style that is cozy and, at the same time, elegant in a rather subtle way that pervades the whole experience, from the warm colours, to the head rests in the “tablecloth” pattern and the crew’s uniforms.
Seat pitch was correct (30”) for the regular seat, a bit more on the first row. Note also (above) the very basic net-type pocket for literature and personal items at the bottom of the seat.
Food and drinks can be ordered for a charge. To be honest, most Volotea’s flights are rather short, so not sure what the take up rate is. The offerings and price levels looked ok. I didn’t order any myself, though.
The menu is available both in paper/plastic format (distributed by the crew) and digitally on Volotea Play, the airline’s inflight digital content platform, which is provided, as far as I know, by Immfly (disclosure: another company I have had the chance to work with on some projects in past years)
The digital platform is, in fact, an important part of the experience, not least because it is provided for free.
Volotea Play is a bring-your-own-device system that operates on a closed network, that is, it is not connected to the internet, but it is able to serve different types of content to the passengers on their own devices (make sure your phone or computer is charged before boarding the flight, because there are no in-seat power outlets).
So, let’s have a look at what you can do on Volotea Play…quite a lot, actually, if you consider, as mentioned earlier, that most flights on Volotea’s network are short.
Besides the inflight menu and some corporate info about Volotea, there is a pretty decent movie and series catalogue, plus a press section that offers newspapers and magazines in several languages, as well as lifestyle, music and other content.
It is also possible, in theory, to access live flight info, however, I must say this option was not working on neither on my two flights.
A couple more things to round it up: a digital inflight magazine with information about many of Volotea’s destinations and a feedback form that popped up right after landing.
So, this is how, after an eventless one hour flight, we landed in Bordeaux. One final word also to highlight that the crew seemed to be quite caring and attentive, not because I interacted with them much, but I could see them doing so with some passengers around, including one next to me with some reduced mobility.
Our take:
Volotea provides a great value option. It’s has many of the elements of a low cost product (including the very low base prices), but it doesn’t feel “low-costish”. An additional value element is that offers the possibility of flying many routes that are relatively underserved by larger carriers.