Volotea
 

Hi, just thought I'd start a thread up on this airline, looks like a nice little startup to me, the last 2 years seem to have been really good for them, I have a few questions about them however.

1. Is anyone aware of the type of 717's they operate? Do they operate the HGW version of the 717? Or actually does ANYONE operate the HGW version of the 717?
2. Do they have any plans to acquire anymore 717's, I'm not aware of any currently on the market due to the surge in demand for them, but as far as I can tell Volotea seem to have quite a high utilisation so they will more than likely need to think of something if they want to expand. Airbus/Embraer/Bombardier/Boeing maybe?

Finally does anyone have any experience on them, how are they? Here's hoping for that British base sometime soon.

Cheers, Wiggy.

>1. Is anyone aware of the type of 717's they operate?

They are all -2BL models, ex Midwest Express, leased from Boeing Capital. Most were delivered by Southern Cross ferry pilots.

I don't know about the HGW option; the 717's certification TCDS was updated so that it only lists the HGW MTOW (54,885 kg ) without a break-out of individual frames, so you'd need someone familiar with the actual airframes to check the docs.

Ther are two engine options, the A1 and C1, but I understand that it's just a software tweak to gain the higher thrust.

Volotea
 

Volotea a/c at BHD yesterday operating a flight to VRN. Nice colours on the tail. Running with a small delay. Flight looked pretty busy.

We get Volotea flying into SEN as charters for the Thomson service to PMI.

Last year certainly EI-EXB was used per https://www.flickr.com/photos/paul46...n/photostream/
this photo of mine. Haven't checked what type of 717 that is, and / or which aircraft are being used this year.

Thank you, I hope someone does know the details, all of the routes they currently operate are within the 1480nmi radius of the standard 717, while the HGW version, if any exist, has a pretty impressive range, i.e Venice-Kuwait, Venice-Canaries, Nantes-Tel Aviv etc.

If anyone knows what routes Midwest used to operate them on that could provide an answer.

Always thought it was strange for a spanish airline that their main bases seem to be venice and in france?

The DC9, MD80, MD90, B717 is quite a purposeful aeroplane when compared against the A320 and/or B737, it doesn't need airstairs or steps to plane/deplane meaning it can operate in/out of these back of beyond airfields whilst expediting turnaround times.

Somewhat of a shame that once Boeing got hold of it they put it out of production in favour of their B737.

I believe their main base is Barcelona. However, they do have operating bases in other countries. Not strange at all in Europe these days. Look at Ryanair, Easyjet and Norwegian (there are more).

Yeah they are based in Barcelona... But don't fly there and their main base is in Italy with another substantial base in Sicily and 2 large bases in France, also interesting is that they must operate sh*t loads of W patterns, hardly any of their destinations have only 1 flight, and a huge chunk of them have flights between non bases, examples of this are Touluse, Vigo, Asturias, Zaragoza, Brest, Caen, Lille and more...

See for yourself: VOLOTEA - Destinations

In fact as I've been typing, does anyone know where aircraft are based? Some places seem to have too much of a comprehensive route offering to not have aircraft based, such as Palma, Naples, Bari, Olbia, Ajaccio...

This is an intriguing and fascinating little airline, I hope to see them as successful as the EU big 4. I'm impressed by their Greek island operations too.

I'm sure they'll fill their niche and do very well; Volotea was established by the two guys behind Vueling, after they spun that off to Iberia for a tidy sum.

I wouldn't expect them to expand much and frankly I hope they don't, as that often leads to over-stretch and disaster.

The full listing of the EI register is here.

This may well give you the information you need.

EI-EXB for example is listed as MSN 55173, MTOW 52617 kg, C1-30 engine variant.

Good link, thanks Cyrano. Low weight with the high thrust engine is a nice combination.

We had this discussion on the SEN thread two years ago. In broad terms the specification of the Volotea aircraft, as evidenced from the register details, indicates the engine thrust levels are those appropriate to the HGW version, but the MTOWs are those of the Basic Airplane. So they are either HGW aircraft with the certificated MTOW deliberately restricted to reduce airport and en route charges, or Basic Airplanes with engines uprated by the simple (?) plugin and software change. One certain conclusion is that with these lower MTOWs their maximum full payload range will fall well short of the figures achievable with an unrestricted HGW.

Once again this highlights the difficulty of using internet sources for determining aircraft performance capability. Manufacturers data on the internet is not wrong but usually only covers a very limited selection of the weight variants and engine thrust options available. So the chances of the published data accurately reflecting the capabilities of a particular operators aircraft are not good, a situation that is most apparent when considering operations from restrictive runways such as SEN and SOU. Wikipedia data is even more generalised and hence of little use. It means that one has to be wary of being too prescriptive unless the source is from the operators own data.

Thank you very much Cyrano, it seems that the Volotea aircraft have an MTOW which is right in the middle of the basic/HGW (49900kg vs 55900) although as you say Tagron this might not be 100% reliable. Volotea operate their A/C from a few runways less than 6,000ft, and even more between 6,000-7,000ft including on some flights up to 2.5 hours long.

I think that it seems as if they are the HGW variant, which have been certified below the maximum MTOW for the HGW variant, as you suggest to save money. Does this also mean that the range of Volotea's 717's will be somewhere inbetween the 1430nmi and 2060nmi?

Thank you

Just to let you know that the aircraft used on Sat 31st May was EI-FBM. I'll leave the more technical of you to discover which specific variant that was.

Saw it land and it seems the pilot got it down MUCH earlier than the preceding easy A319.

I'm guessing you're referring to the Southend flight Paul. It was quite a low approach, and it was a lot quieter than I thought it was going to be. :)

Returned from holiday in Tenerife last week and noticed that there was a Volotea flight due in at TFS from Nantes late that night. Was quite surprised the 717 was being operated on a flight of that distance.

Volotea are currently running a summer charter service on Thomson's behalf every Saturday pm from Southampton to Palma. EI-EXA was the frame on the service yesterday ; arrives around 1400 , stays an hour.

25 min turn around at SEN going to palma mallorca

Where to apply
 

Hi ,does anybody where to apply?are they looking for pilots for the 3 rd base in France SXB? What are the conditions?
Thanks for your reply