Volaris
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| Founded | 2005 | |||
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| Hubs | Lic. Adolfo López Mateos International Airport General Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport |
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| Focus cities | Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla International Airport Cancún International Airport Hermanos Serdán International Airport |
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| Fleet size | 21 (28 orders) | |||
| Destinations | 25 | |||
| Parent company | Vuela Compañia de Aviación | |||
| Headquarters | Mexico City, Mexico | |||
| Key people | Enrique Beltranena (CEO) Fernando Suarez (CFO) Holger Blankenstein (CCO) |
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| Website | http://www.volaris.com.mx/Inicio.aspx?culture=en-US volaris.com | |||
Volaris is part of the commercial brand of the Mexican group Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación S.A. de C.V., a low-cost airline. It is the third largest and the fastest growing Mexican airline, after Aeromexico and Mexicana. The name Volaris, a fusion between the word volar (to fly) and the North Star Polaris, was selected from over 1000 proposals.
Its headquarters are located in Santa Fe, Mexico City,[1] and its operational base are located at the Lic. Adolfo López Mateos International Airport (TLC) in Toluca, 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Mexico City, rather than the more expensive and congested Mexico City International Airport. Volaris no longer provides free transportation from Toluca Airport to Mexico City's Santa Fé area to every passenger, you now need to pay the highest published tariff to have this service included for free, otherwise you need to pay extra for the service.
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[edit] History
The pre-operations phase started in August 2005 with the founding of the legal entities and with setting up of required infrastructure. The first ticket was sold on January 12th, 2006 and the first non-commercial flight was operated in February 2006.
The inauguration of activities was held with a ceremony at the Toluca airport in which President of Mexico Vicente Fox cut the inauguration ribbon. Volaris' first commercial flight was a Toluca-Tijuana trip on March 13, 2006.
The founding and owner partners of Volaris are Grupo Televisa (the world's biggest Spanish language media conglomerate), Inbursa (an insurance company owned by billionaire Carlos Slim), Grupo TACA (the national airline of El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru), and Protego Discovery Fund [1]. Each of these partners invested 25% of the initial cost of activities, or $100 million USD. In May 2006 Airbus started the delivery of the first of 18 A319s on order. In October 2008 Airbus delivered the first of 10 Airbus A320 on order. The airline has been received well on a number of areas including fares, fleet, service and on time service. If a flight is delayed for more than 30 minutes, passengers are given free, transferable tickets for use on any destination on their next purchase. If check-in lasts more than 10 minutes after passing the waiting line, passengers are given a discount coupon for their next purchase.
The IATA code of Volaris, Y4 previously belonged to Eagle Aviation Kenya.
[edit] US Operations
In November of 2008, Volaris announced a code share agreement with Southwest Airlines. Southwest and Volaris plan to announce their itineraries in 2010. In February of 2009, Volaris received permission to fly outside of Mexico, the 2nd of February of 2009, Volaris submitted the solicitation to the US DOT asking permission to operate in Los Angeles and Oakland with flights to and from Toluca and Guadalajara, using their A319 and A320 aircraft. In April of 2009, Volaris announced the start of operations to Los Angeles (began July 2nd) and Oakland (San Francisco Bay Area--began July 16th) with direct flights to Toluca and Guadalajara for each. In addition, Oakland will be graced with a Tijuana route (began September 21st), which will permit connecting flights from the California city to the following Volaris destinations: Acapulco, Culiacán, León/Bajío, Morelia, Oaxaca and Uruapan. In September of 2009, Volaris submitted the solicitation to the US DOT asking permission to operate Los Angeles to Morelia and Los Angeles to Zacatecas. Volaris most recently applied to create a route between Los Angeles and Monterrey. Service would begin shortly after approval. Most recently, Volaris applied to the DOT to open service between Guadalajara and San Jose, CA, and Chicago, IL. It has not been specified which Chicago airport would be utilized.
[edit] Destinations
[edit] Fleet
Volaris fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of April 30, 2009)
| Airplane | Total | Orders | Passengers (Coach) |
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| Airbus A319-100 | 19 | 20 | 144 | Mexico, United States |
| Airbus A320-200 | 2 | 8 | 174 | Mexico, United States |
Volaris has the youngest commercial fleet in Mexico, with an average fleet of 2.36 years old. The airline signed an order for 18 more new aircraft of the same model, for delivery in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 with a configuration of 144 seats in a single class while the A320 has a configuration of 174 seats in a single class. The same contract has options for 26 additional A319 jets. The separation pitch between each seat is 32 inches. Seats are made of leather.
Due to the experience of TACA, Volaris selected International Aero Engines model V2500 engines for its fleet.
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[edit] References
- ^ "Contact Us." Volaris. Retrieved on February 13, 2010.
[edit] External links
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