Spanish regional low-cost airline Volotea has reportedly lined up investment banks Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital to prepare for an IPO on the Madrid stock market.
This is not the first time that the Barcelona-based carrier has initiated the process to become a publicly listed company.
On a previous occasion in 2016 the airline even sent an official note to the Spanish stock market regulator (“CNMV”) about its impending listing. However, the IPO was cancelled, allegedly due to the high volatility that markets were going through at the time.
Volotea was launched in 2012 by Carlos Muñoz and Lázaro Ros, who founded Vueling, now part of the IAG Group, a few years earlier.
The airline started with a fleet of second-hand Boeing 717 aircraft, linking small and medium-sized cities in western Europe with limited direct air connectivity.
In the decade since then, Volotea has grown considerably, carrying 9.5 million passengers in 2022 and transitioning to an all-Airbus fleet of 40 aircraft (20 A319s and 20 A320s).
Most of Volotea’s routes are in Italy, Spain, and France. Its operational formula has been particularly successful in France, where it has surpassed Air France to become the country’s largest domestic airline by traffic, with a route network that, unlike that of the flag carrier, bypasses Paris almost entirely.
