Fleet developments To support this network growth, Vueling has agreed to lease fi ve A320s from Iberia to provide the short-term capacity to support the schedules. “We are currently in a diffi cult situation as we have no fi rm information if this arrangement with Iberia will continue beyond the summer schedules. If it was to continue, then we could go out to the market and source aircraft on better terms,” says Cruz.
The airline now operates a fl eet of over 40 A320s, ranging from three years to half a dozen with around 20 years’ service. It is considering buying new aircraft and is currently completing a preliminary renewal exercise ahead of the launch of a formal tender in the coming months.
London links
London would clearly be an attractive market for Vueling, especially given the new British Airways and Iberia ownership structure. “Of all the hub airports where it would be natural for us to provide the spokes, London Heathrow is certainly the number one. There is a strong potential to connect to BA’s long-haul routes as there is a strong fl ow of traffi c from north-west Spain in particular,” confi rms Cruz.
It has three slot pairs at Heathrow; one is used for daily rotation to Bilbao, one for a daily service to La Coruña and one for a daily link to Seville. With little opportunity to secure additional slots there, it is to cut its Seville fl ight to four times per week, using the three additional slot pairs to add the new seasonal link to Vigo, which will likely launch during May.
www.routesonline.com
Looking ahead
The ability to think outside of the box is what has set Cruz and Vueling apart from others. “When you have such tight control over your cost structure, it is easier to make these decisions,” he says. Vueling currently has one of the lowest cost structures in the business, with costs per Available Seat Kilometre (ASK) of just four cents, second only to Ryanair in Europe. “That is what has enabled us to be where we are today, and we may be looking at new opportunities to improve our product and to push the boundaries, but we can only achieve this by keeping control of our costs,” he adds. The aviation
industry is constantly changing and
nobody can prepare for what is around the corner. In the next year we just might see a low-cost carrier providing Business Class feeder traffi c to the transatlantic fl ights of British Airways from London Heathrow. Cruz acknowledges that not even he would have considered that scenario on his fi rst day as an airline CEO just fi ve years ago.
READ MORE RN
The full interview with Alex Cruz is on The Hub on
www.routesonline.com
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