Vueling
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I can't see the service being effected too much by the reconfiguration. A majority of the service (drink and biscuit) can be contained in the one trolley. Even a light breakfast/sandwich and drinks could be all be done by the same trolley.
On the few routes where a hot meal is provided, more thought would be needed but it can still be done. A large oven up front and one at the back will be absolutely sufficient. There is no need for these to be served on a full size tray, so you would easily have the space to do so.
They're a profit making business and have to do whatever they see fit in order to provide long term profitability and stability to their short haul operation.
I can't see BASSA allowing up to 186 without an additional crew member, so Indont think passengers will notice a difference.
On the few routes where a hot meal is provided, more thought would be needed but it can still be done. A large oven up front and one at the back will be absolutely sufficient. There is no need for these to be served on a full size tray, so you would easily have the space to do so.
They're a profit making business and have to do whatever they see fit in order to provide long term profitability and stability to their short haul operation.
I can't see BASSA allowing up to 186 without an additional crew member, so Indont think passengers will notice a difference.
Join Date: May 2005
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Why is the transfer of BA services to Vuelling worthy of serious concern? It might not happen quite like that....
There will be routes with a high percentage of transfer traffic and where the British Airways brand is important that would probably at least on paper stay with BA from a brand point of view. It may be worth retaining Club on some routes too - although when I last travelled Marseille-London on a weekend flight everyone in Club was travelling on miles- a huge outlay for no return.
But on most routes surely a fleet of identical aircraft, with identical configuration service levels and ultimately crew T&Cs gives IAG ultimate operational flexibility whatever it says on the outside of the aeroplane- that has to be an advantage business/costs wise.
There will be routes with a high percentage of transfer traffic and where the British Airways brand is important that would probably at least on paper stay with BA from a brand point of view. It may be worth retaining Club on some routes too - although when I last travelled Marseille-London on a weekend flight everyone in Club was travelling on miles- a huge outlay for no return.
But on most routes surely a fleet of identical aircraft, with identical configuration service levels and ultimately crew T&Cs gives IAG ultimate operational flexibility whatever it says on the outside of the aeroplane- that has to be an advantage business/costs wise.
Last edited by 22/04; 3rd Feb 2016 at 15:57. Reason: typo
Join Date: Apr 2012
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Depends where you're flying from. From Cardiff they codeshare Iberia and British Airways so if made on one booking through the BA or IB website then should be able to check in for all flights.
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It's Liverpool to Barcelona then onwards to San Sebastian but a change in travel plans means we don't want to take up the San Sebastian leg so I'd like to check in Liverpool /Barcelona only
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If you do that through the VY website and check in for LPL-BCN only you should be ok. Worth notifying the staff on the check in desk so that your luggage doesn't end up in San Sebastian.
Join Date: May 2011
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All day today in Catalonia, Vueling has taken a pasting in the media. Lunchtime tv news programmes were full of horror stories of massive delays and/ or cancellations at BCN "all relating to Vueling."
This evening the main local evening news programme stuck the boot in big time. They alleged that 1 000+ movements were scheduled at BCN today with Vueling responsible for about 600. And they showed long queues of disgruntled passengers and interviewed many of them expressing their anger. The programme quoted as fact that Vueling has recently sacked about 60 pilots, that it does not have a fleet of a size adequate for its schedule and that it has "refused an offer from Iberia to lend a hand."
The lack of support personnel and or media presence from Vueling was highlighted (though one senior executive David García Blancas was interviewed; making wholly generic and non-specific excuses for these massive delays) as was the allegedly false attribution of problems earlier this week to French ATC with the question "but why did it just affect Vueling?"
TU action by Swissair ground handling as well as a possible work to rule by Vueling personnel were also alluded to.
They reported that there are similar problems for Vueling all around Spain today, mentioning, from memory, Bilbao, Alicante, Malaga Madrid and Mallorca if not more. Paris too. The use of leased aircraft without markings to cover gaps was highlighted.
The appropriate Catalan minister appeared on screen to urge locals to "fill in the complaints form" which certainly was even funnier than Boris's speech yesterday morning.
The same programme is now reporting as it ends that 80 "pilots and crew" were dismissed but then rowed back by saying "though maybe they have just left for jobs with better conditions elsewhere." The refusal of help from Iberia claim was repeated.
It seems from this that its not just my easyJet shareholding that was misconceived.
This evening the main local evening news programme stuck the boot in big time. They alleged that 1 000+ movements were scheduled at BCN today with Vueling responsible for about 600. And they showed long queues of disgruntled passengers and interviewed many of them expressing their anger. The programme quoted as fact that Vueling has recently sacked about 60 pilots, that it does not have a fleet of a size adequate for its schedule and that it has "refused an offer from Iberia to lend a hand."
The lack of support personnel and or media presence from Vueling was highlighted (though one senior executive David García Blancas was interviewed; making wholly generic and non-specific excuses for these massive delays) as was the allegedly false attribution of problems earlier this week to French ATC with the question "but why did it just affect Vueling?"
TU action by Swissair ground handling as well as a possible work to rule by Vueling personnel were also alluded to.
They reported that there are similar problems for Vueling all around Spain today, mentioning, from memory, Bilbao, Alicante, Malaga Madrid and Mallorca if not more. Paris too. The use of leased aircraft without markings to cover gaps was highlighted.
The appropriate Catalan minister appeared on screen to urge locals to "fill in the complaints form" which certainly was even funnier than Boris's speech yesterday morning.
The same programme is now reporting as it ends that 80 "pilots and crew" were dismissed but then rowed back by saying "though maybe they have just left for jobs with better conditions elsewhere." The refusal of help from Iberia claim was repeated.
It seems from this that its not just my easyJet shareholding that was misconceived.
Last edited by BigFrank; 1st Jul 2016 at 20:41.
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I know VUE wet lease aircraft over summer normally, but they've got a Wamos air 747 operating today, are things that desperate that they'll lease a 747? Noticed privilege 757 and 767's operating recently and Titan. This really seems to be turning into a crisis
Join Date: May 2011
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Two more days of unrelenting hostile media coverage here in Catalonia for Vueling.
Press and tv insist that though marginally better yesterday afternoon (Saturday) the broad picture remains one of multiple cancellations, of endemic delays and of a wilderness of disgruntled passengers asserting that both the concept of providing an airline service as per contract as well as complying with law EU261/2004 is not taken seriously by Vueling.
The Catalan ministry involved has promised to send somebody from their city centre offices to BCN to find out what is happening.
Tomorrow !
But the company has gone to ground and is apparently refusing to answer press queries. Radio and tv reporters were forced to use the airline's website for up to date information in these circumstances.
I can only hope as an IAG shareholder that all the executives and press wallahs who seem so indifferent to this slew of terrible publicity are in fact currently hunched over their computer screens trying to work out where they take the company post-Brexit.
And not sitting quaffing champagne and eating strawberries at Wimbledon whilst the company's reputation is further thrashed by the hour here in Catalonia, which is arguably Vueling's single biggest market.
Press and tv insist that though marginally better yesterday afternoon (Saturday) the broad picture remains one of multiple cancellations, of endemic delays and of a wilderness of disgruntled passengers asserting that both the concept of providing an airline service as per contract as well as complying with law EU261/2004 is not taken seriously by Vueling.
The Catalan ministry involved has promised to send somebody from their city centre offices to BCN to find out what is happening.
Tomorrow !
But the company has gone to ground and is apparently refusing to answer press queries. Radio and tv reporters were forced to use the airline's website for up to date information in these circumstances.
I can only hope as an IAG shareholder that all the executives and press wallahs who seem so indifferent to this slew of terrible publicity are in fact currently hunched over their computer screens trying to work out where they take the company post-Brexit.
And not sitting quaffing champagne and eating strawberries at Wimbledon whilst the company's reputation is further thrashed by the hour here in Catalonia, which is arguably Vueling's single biggest market.
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Friends tell me that Vueling is all over the national Spanish Sunday press and on television news today due to flight cancellations and long delays.
The Catalonian Regional Government has summoned the Company to a meeting on Monday at 1700hrs local time to give full explanations for the lack of customer care and failure to provide information in advance of cancellations and long delays of their programmed flights these last few days. They are also being asked to provide assurances and a plan that they have matters in hand for the future.
The word is out that they don’t have enough flight and cabin crews to man their aircraft due to very low wages and poor working conditions, all of which is very difficult to resolve overnight, so tomorrow’s meeting between Vueling and the Catalonian Regional Government should be quite interesting.
The Catalonian Regional Government has summoned the Company to a meeting on Monday at 1700hrs local time to give full explanations for the lack of customer care and failure to provide information in advance of cancellations and long delays of their programmed flights these last few days. They are also being asked to provide assurances and a plan that they have matters in hand for the future.
The word is out that they don’t have enough flight and cabin crews to man their aircraft due to very low wages and poor working conditions, all of which is very difficult to resolve overnight, so tomorrow’s meeting between Vueling and the Catalonian Regional Government should be quite interesting.
Join Date: May 2011
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No clear signs of a solution yet
This morning Vueling are due to meet the Spanish central government to address the situation. In the late afternoon they must meet the equivalent body in Catalonia.
The rôle played by AENA, the recently privatised Spanish airport operator has been questioned lately too.
Given the almost total lack of pro-active intervention by Spanish/ Catalan governmental bodies in support of the consumer, on past performance, Vueling has nothing to fear from these meetings.
Vueling TU leader Guadalupe Romero denied on air any form of hidden work to rule.
This morning at about 09:25 local Vueling spokesperson David Garcia finally and very belatedly made a live appearance on radio.
* When pressed to explain the chaos attributed most of the problems to the knock on effect of the cancellation of 56 flights on 28th June caused by French ATC and the need to re-allocate 8 000 passengers affected. (He more than slightly undermined his own case by stating that another low cost [sic] airline had had 176 flights cancelled the same day.)
* In a longish interview he denied that Vueling has cut out all summer peak aircraft leases and asserted that 6 are in place for July and August. He also gave figures for many extra personnel both pilots and cabin staff. Also a sudden increase of staff to handle complaints.
Most worryingly of all, long term in this farrago, for IAG shareholders, the performance of the previous Vueling chief executive Alex Cruz who has now moved to head up BA been questioned, with what degree of accuracy I cannot know, recently.
One final observation, it is impossible as a long time resident of Catalonia not to compare and contrast the media and/ or governmental kicking which Vueling is currently receiving with the hyper-indulgent fawning obsequiousness which has characterised their relationship with the infamous lowClass airline and its jesterKing which/ who has run multi million euro rings round them and incited them to build gin-palace airports at Reus and to a lesser extent at Girona which are almost empty 9 months of the year.
The rôle played by AENA, the recently privatised Spanish airport operator has been questioned lately too.
Given the almost total lack of pro-active intervention by Spanish/ Catalan governmental bodies in support of the consumer, on past performance, Vueling has nothing to fear from these meetings.
Vueling TU leader Guadalupe Romero denied on air any form of hidden work to rule.
This morning at about 09:25 local Vueling spokesperson David Garcia finally and very belatedly made a live appearance on radio.
* When pressed to explain the chaos attributed most of the problems to the knock on effect of the cancellation of 56 flights on 28th June caused by French ATC and the need to re-allocate 8 000 passengers affected. (He more than slightly undermined his own case by stating that another low cost [sic] airline had had 176 flights cancelled the same day.)
* In a longish interview he denied that Vueling has cut out all summer peak aircraft leases and asserted that 6 are in place for July and August. He also gave figures for many extra personnel both pilots and cabin staff. Also a sudden increase of staff to handle complaints.
Most worryingly of all, long term in this farrago, for IAG shareholders, the performance of the previous Vueling chief executive Alex Cruz who has now moved to head up BA been questioned, with what degree of accuracy I cannot know, recently.
One final observation, it is impossible as a long time resident of Catalonia not to compare and contrast the media and/ or governmental kicking which Vueling is currently receiving with the hyper-indulgent fawning obsequiousness which has characterised their relationship with the infamous lowClass airline and its jesterKing which/ who has run multi million euro rings round them and incited them to build gin-palace airports at Reus and to a lesser extent at Girona which are almost empty 9 months of the year.
Last edited by BigFrank; 4th Jul 2016 at 09:43.
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After roughly 3 weeks of relative silence, including assurances by Vueling to both Madrid and Barcelona Governments that "there will be no more cancellations or significant delays as we have hired enormous amounts of extra staff and aircraft" this past week/end has seen the Catalan Government skewered by Vueling who, despite the above assurance, have apparently cancelled 3 routes out of BCN.
Further, after some very heavy rain here on Friday evening, and the brief need to close one of the 2 main runways at BCN for an unrelated(?) problem, a high degree of delays and cancellations were reported at the weekend. Mainly for Vueling. "But also for BA, AA and Iberia."
ˇ Or so the local media report !
And you though that Hitler's favourite Fleet Street title was useless?
Further, after some very heavy rain here on Friday evening, and the brief need to close one of the 2 main runways at BCN for an unrelated(?) problem, a high degree of delays and cancellations were reported at the weekend. Mainly for Vueling. "But also for BA, AA and Iberia."
ˇ Or so the local media report !
And you though that Hitler's favourite Fleet Street title was useless?
Join Date: Feb 2004
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Vueling to close Bussels, Palermo and Catania bases. Sad news for based crews.
Primarily - Rome/Florence Paris Barcelona and Alicante stations
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runtankrd you are wrong.
Spanish low-cost carrier (LCC) Vueling, which is owned by International Airlines Group (IAG), has closed three aircraft bases and is rolling out a new restructuring strategy, “Vueling NEXT,” which also includes a new management structure.
A Vueling spokeswoman confirmed to ATW the airline has closed its Italian bases in Catania and Palermo, as well as Brussels in Belgium. Each base had a single 180-seat Airbus A320.
She said “this does not imply the cancellation of routes,” as the majority will continue to be served by non-based aircraft, but Vueling has cut services from Brussels to Oporto and Lisbon in Portugal.
“These changes are a consequence of a restructuring on the network in Europe focusing on main markets for Vueling as Spain, France and Italy,” she told ATW.
Under the Vueling NEXT plan, the LCC said it will place more emphasis on customer experience and minimize costs through improved operational efficiency.
“Vueling’s objective is to become a benchmark in Europe by consolidating its position at Barcelona-El Prat Airport and securing part of Europe’s growth market over the next few years,” Vueling said, adding the consolidation aims to regain customer confidence, and drive growth and profitability.
To support the revamp, Vueling has expanded its management committee from four to seven members and hired a number of new executives. “These new appointments are a fundamental part of a wide restructure,” Vueling said.
Former Southwest Airlines VP-corporate strategy Mike Delehant has been named as Vueling chief strategy officer and will be in charge of Vueling NEXT. Vueling said Delehant will be “pivotal in the airline’s turnaround.”
Calum Laming will join from Etihad Airways, where he was VP-guest experience, to take up the role of Vueling chief customer officer. Laming has held marketing and customer-related positions in several companies, including Procter & Gamble, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand.
Laming’s team will include head of customer experience Rodolfo Oliveira, who joined Vueling earlier this summer after being in charge of quality and efficiency at Brazilian carrier Azul, and head of customer care Patricia González, who previously directed and managed the contact center at French media company Canal+.
Existing Vueling COO Valentin Lago will head up the operational efficiency improvements, supported by new head of operations control Warren Gravell, who has over 25 years’ operations experience with airlines including Gulf Air, UK LCC easyJet and Singaporean LCC Tiger Airways. Rubén Camberos will join from Aeromexico to lead crew planning and former Iberia Express executive Carlos Montesinos has been named as head of cabin services.
Former consultant Luis Galí, who has experience with Daemon Quest, Accenture and PwC, is joining the airline as head of marketing and commercial strategy.
Iliana Cruz has been named as head of revenue management and pricing. Cruz has worked for several airlines, including Latvian carrier airBaltic, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and LOT Polish Airlines.
Communication and HR will also be represented in the management committee for the first time by Ana Fernández and Cristian Rodríguez, respectively.
Spanish low-cost carrier (LCC) Vueling, which is owned by International Airlines Group (IAG), has closed three aircraft bases and is rolling out a new restructuring strategy, “Vueling NEXT,” which also includes a new management structure.
A Vueling spokeswoman confirmed to ATW the airline has closed its Italian bases in Catania and Palermo, as well as Brussels in Belgium. Each base had a single 180-seat Airbus A320.
She said “this does not imply the cancellation of routes,” as the majority will continue to be served by non-based aircraft, but Vueling has cut services from Brussels to Oporto and Lisbon in Portugal.
“These changes are a consequence of a restructuring on the network in Europe focusing on main markets for Vueling as Spain, France and Italy,” she told ATW.
Under the Vueling NEXT plan, the LCC said it will place more emphasis on customer experience and minimize costs through improved operational efficiency.
“Vueling’s objective is to become a benchmark in Europe by consolidating its position at Barcelona-El Prat Airport and securing part of Europe’s growth market over the next few years,” Vueling said, adding the consolidation aims to regain customer confidence, and drive growth and profitability.
To support the revamp, Vueling has expanded its management committee from four to seven members and hired a number of new executives. “These new appointments are a fundamental part of a wide restructure,” Vueling said.
Former Southwest Airlines VP-corporate strategy Mike Delehant has been named as Vueling chief strategy officer and will be in charge of Vueling NEXT. Vueling said Delehant will be “pivotal in the airline’s turnaround.”
Calum Laming will join from Etihad Airways, where he was VP-guest experience, to take up the role of Vueling chief customer officer. Laming has held marketing and customer-related positions in several companies, including Procter & Gamble, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand.
Laming’s team will include head of customer experience Rodolfo Oliveira, who joined Vueling earlier this summer after being in charge of quality and efficiency at Brazilian carrier Azul, and head of customer care Patricia González, who previously directed and managed the contact center at French media company Canal+.
Existing Vueling COO Valentin Lago will head up the operational efficiency improvements, supported by new head of operations control Warren Gravell, who has over 25 years’ operations experience with airlines including Gulf Air, UK LCC easyJet and Singaporean LCC Tiger Airways. Rubén Camberos will join from Aeromexico to lead crew planning and former Iberia Express executive Carlos Montesinos has been named as head of cabin services.
Former consultant Luis Galí, who has experience with Daemon Quest, Accenture and PwC, is joining the airline as head of marketing and commercial strategy.
Iliana Cruz has been named as head of revenue management and pricing. Cruz has worked for several airlines, including Latvian carrier airBaltic, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and LOT Polish Airlines.
Communication and HR will also be represented in the management committee for the first time by Ana Fernández and Cristian Rodríguez, respectively.
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Recent analysis
Vueling passes 100 million passenger mark from Barcelona
Germany and UK down this summer, Spain market up (maybe due to feeder for new low cost long haul airline Level?)
Vueling passes 100 million passenger mark from Barcelona
Germany and UK down this summer, Spain market up (maybe due to feeder for new low cost long haul airline Level?)
