ATHENS – Volotea, the airline connecting small and mid- sized European cities, announced that it will strengthen its equity base by up to 100 million euros and the addition of Aegean Airlines, Greece’s largest carrier, and Volotea’s commercial partner since 2021, as an investor. This move strengthens Volotea’s financial position and consolidates its strategic partnership with Aegean, aiming to boost both airlines’ positioning on the continent and enhance their ability to respond to industry changes.
The Spanish airline has strengthened its equity base with an initial injection of 50 million euros, of which Aegean will contribute 25 million euros. The remaining 25 million euros will be provided by the company’s current investors, including the management team led by CEO and Founder, Carlos Muñoz. Another up to 50 million euros tranche is expected to be executed by the first quarter 2025, with the same contributions split.
If Aegean’s contribution from the first tranche is converted into shares, this would translate into a 13% stake in Volotea. If the second tranche is also executed and subsequently converted, Aegean’s overall stake in Volotea could reach 21%.
Aegean’s entry into Volotea’s shareholder base strengthens the Barcelona-based company’s financial structure and is accompanied by a commercial joint venture. This enhances the Spanish airline’s strategic and financial position on the continent to better address upcoming industry developments, such as the European Commission’s approval of the ITA Airways and Lufthansa merger and the evolving competitive landscape of the European market. It will also enable Volotea to further strengthen its presence in Greece, ensuring a focus on growth and service enhancement within the country.
Since 2021, both airlines have maintained a bilateral agreement to market codeshare flights on existing international routes in Italy, France, Spain, and Greece, allowing customers of each company to benefit from an expanded network of destinations. In this regard, the commercial joint venture signed today in Athens also involves expanding their codeshare collaboration and optimizing and providing coordinated and enhanced services, ensuring more connectivity options for passengers. Some of the new commercial benefits include increased seating capacity and routes in Greece, especially to the Greek Islands, along with new international routes from France and Italy that have never been served before. Both companies will collectively offer a total of 140 routes. Athens and Thessaloniki’s positions as key international travel hubs will also be strengthened, while connectivity to the Greek Islands will significantly improve, particularly on routes to Corfu, Heraklion, and Rhodes.
For Carlos Muñoz, CEO and founder of Volotea: “Today is an extremely important day for Volotea, as this capital injection marks a significant financial milestone, with our shareholders and the agreement incorporating AEGEAN as a strategic and financial partner. We have known AEGEAN and their team, led by its President, Eftichios Vassilakis, as partners for several years now, and share a similar philosophy, values and vision toward European airline consolidation. We are extremely satisfied with this new step in our successful partnership together.”
Aegean’s Chairman Eftichios Vassilakis stated: “Aegean and Volotea may have different operating models and products but are in many ways complimentary and share a customer focused philosophy. We are investing in Volotea because we believe in the strategy and potential of Volotea’s expandable model, but also to deepen our distribution reach into 3 highly significant source markets (France, Italy and Spain) and to join forces in providing more direct connectivity from these markets to Regional Airports of Greece. Carlos Muñoz and his team have done an excellent job building the company and its network and we are very happy to join the other shareholders of Volotea in providing the capital for its development. Also, we firmly believe that going forward as the two teams cooperate and understand each other’s capabilities more opportunities for cooperation and synergies will be found.”
Volotea, recognized for its high-quality service and high customer satisfaction rate (NPS), has been named “Best Low-Cost Airline in Europe” by Skytrax (2023 and 2024) and “Leading Low-Cost Airline in Europe” at the World Travel Awards (2021, 2022, and 2024). The company closed the last fiscal year with a revenue of 694 million euros, 24.6% higher than the previous year. For 2024, Volotea expects revenue to exceed 800 million euros, making it the most profitable year in the company’s history. Volotea expects to reach between 110-120 million euros of EBITDA in the first nine months of 2024 compared to the 100 million euros reached in the same period last year. The airline anticipates transporting around 11.5-12 million passengers in 2024, offering more than 450 routes in 18 European countries.
The article Greek Aegean acquires a 13% stake in Volotea first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.
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