New Amsterdam Route Among Vueling’s Winter Additions

Credit: Rob Finlayson

A nonstop connection between Asturias (OVD) in the northwest of Spain and Amsterdam (AMS) is among the latest additions to Vueling’s network during the forthcoming northern winter season.

The LCC has filed plans to link the mountainous Spanish region with the Dutch capital from Oct. 30, offering two flights per week using Airbus A320 aircraft. The route will become Vueling’s third international service from Asturias in winter 2022/23 and the sole link to Amsterdam.

According to data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser, the carrier will also continue to offer London Gatwick (LGW) and Paris Orly (ORY) services from OVD during the season, which currently operate 4X-weekly and 2X-weekly respectively.

In addition, Ryanair will serve five international destinations from OVD this winter, flying to Brussels Charleroi (CRL), Dublin (DUB), Dusseldorf Weeze (NRN), London Stansted (STN) and Rome Fiumicino (FCO).

Asturias-Amsterdam is one of six new routes that Vueling currently plans to launch by early November. On Sept. 12, the airline will begin operations between Paris Orly and Shannon (SNN), connecting the destinations twice a week using A321s.

It will become the Irish airport’s sole nonstop link to the French capital and comes almost six years since Ryanair ended its Shannon-Paris Beauvais (BVA) service.

On Oct. 22, the first of two new Danish routes from Tenerife South (TFS) will be launched by Vueling. Flights to and from Copenhagen (CPH) will be twice a week, while service to Billund (BLL) starts a day later and will be 1X-weekly. Both routes will operate with A320s.

Vueling will become the only scheduled airline to link Tenerife and Billund nonstop, but Norwegian and SAS Scandinavian Airlines intend to serve TFS-CPH this winter.

Two new routes to Egypt’s capital Cairo (CAI) are also scheduled to launch at the start of the winter season. Barcelona (BCN)-Cairo will begin on Oct. 31 using A320s and Paris Orly-Cairo starts on Nov. 2 with A321s. Each route will receive two flights per week.

Vueling will compete directly with Egyptair’s 5X-weekly service in the BCN-CAI market and Transavia.com France’s two flights per week between ORY and CAI. Egyptair and Air France also fly Paris Charles de Gaulle-Cairo double-daily and daily respectively.

The latest additions to Vueling’s network come days after parent International Airlines Group (IAG) said the carrier and its sister company Iberia were “the best performing carriers within the group.” Vueling reported revenues of €977 million ($1 billion) for the six months to June 30, 2022, and an operating loss of €52 million. This compares with revenues of €196 million and an operating loss of €195 million for the same period a year ago.

In the three months to June 30, Vueling carried 8.8 million passengers, down by just 6.6% on the same quarter in 2019. The airline’s passenger load factor was 84.1%.

David Casey

David Casey is Editor in Chief of Routes, the global route development community's trusted source for news and information.