LondonAndy

Interesting article in The Times yesterday (3 August 2013) talking about IAG's results, but also discussing Vueling taking on Ryanair and Easyjet - the story is behind a paywall, but key parts of the article are below:

Willie Walsh has thrown down the gauntlet to low-cost airlines by setting out plans for an aggressive expansion of Vueling, a newly acquired Spanish carrier, across Europe. He declared that he wanted to move on to the turf of easyJet and Ryanair after taking full ownership of Vueling yesterday.

We're not going to try to fool anybody - Ryanair has the lowest cost base in the industry, possibly globally," Mr Walsh said. "But easyJet's cost base is not as good as Vueling. And Vueling has a far superior product to either easyJet or Ryanair."

Vueling flies to 11 destinations using 70 aircraft, and now had 97% of Vueling's shares, which will be delisted from the Spanish stock market following the £105 million takeover. The airline is expanding 25% this year, adding new routes and services. "We're putting a lot of capacity into Germany and Scandinavia and a little into the UK and Portugal".

Although it positions itself as a budget airline, Vueling has a business-class cabin and goes to premium airports, including Heathrow.

IAG's strategy is initially to link each European city with Vueling's base in Barcelona, then to add services to other Spanish cities. As a third stage, it intends to add connections with destinations in other countries. New recent routes include Heathrow to Florence and Paris to Casablanca. One rival cautioned that by using a Spanish brand, IAG would find it difficult to attract Northern European travellers.

traveller42

Umm. "And Vueling has a far superior product to either easyJet or Ryanair.""

I did Vueling from Amsterdam to Barcelona and back last year. It was the most cramped flight I've ever been on. Full stop. Ever. It was up there with 3+3 in a BAe 146 in terms of overall lack of space.

I'd take EasyJet over Vueling any day of the week without a seconds hesitation.

If I had a choice of Vueling or Ryanair on a similar route then I'd be driven by price and schedule but first I'd spend some time trying to avoid having to do the trip in the first place.

colmc

Indeed: "superior" is over-egging the puddling considerably.

I can't imagine MOL is quaking in his boots yet. I'd be surprised if easyJet is doing more than cracking a mild sweat.

sigma421

I like Vueling but I'd be hard pushed to say that the product is superior to easyJet particularly now that the orange one has assigned seating.

corporate-wage-slave

I'm ok with both airlines, especially with the paid for version of assigned seating on easyJet. The LCC preboard scrum is now a distant memory on that airline, now that everyone has a seat to go to. If they decided to allow connections at (say) LGW, STN and LTN (and unofficially they and the airports enable it to happen at STN and LGW) then the gap between easyJet and BA EuroTraveller starts to get very small. I think they will announce this before too long, and maybe this is where BA is getting nervous.

Silver Fox

Perhaps they could call it "Go around", or "Go again".

Noctilux

Hello;

My wife & I have a house near Florence & so fly there monthly from London, our choice is between CityJet from LCY or Vueling from LHR. Having flown both, our rule is that Vueling has to be over £100 cheaper before we choose it. Grubby ex-Lufthansa planes, nasty cabin crew and often delayed flights; not fun.

BTW, now that BA (IAG) owns it, does that mean we can earn Avios on the flight?

sigma421

You can earn Avios on Vueling flight through Iberia Plus (although not on the most basic fare only the optima and excelente fares earn Avios) you can then transfer these to your BA account.
Vueling's fleet is a pretty mixed bag. There are some new ones fresh from the Airbus factory but there are also some fairly ropy 20+ year old examples in there. I've personally always found them to be clean, punctual and friendly (although not notably moreso than easyJet) but obviously YMMV.

themapelligroup

Not yet, but it's likely we will anytime soon.
Vueling will stay independent (so no oneworld affiliation) in IAG

bafan

Or 'Here we Go, again'