VOLOTERRA:
how to contribute to cleaner travel
The environmental dimension of our activities
our commitment to sustainability
Taking care of our planet is a shared responsibility and aviation plays an important role in that effort. The industry is often looked at with skepticism, due to its role in CO2 emissions worldwide. At the same time, it is very unlikely that we will see a Europe without airlines in the future.The challenge, then, is to find ways to make aviation more sustainable.
Volotea was founded over a decade ago and we have always been mindful of these challenges. Now that we have grown into a company with enough size to make a difference, we are stepping up to accelerate the countdown to our goal of reducing emissions and building a more sustainable future.
Our promise
Connect small and medium sized cities in Europe directly: places previously unconnected or underserviced. This was our first step to enable an improvement in the impact of travel among our clients. By helping them avoid taking connecting flights, we’ve cut dramatically their travel footprint.
Our vision
Now is the time to do more. If we are honest, to truly make C02 emissions reduction happen, we’ve got to do this together: clients, our business partners and us. With this in mind, we’ve just released our first C02 emissions reduction plan, and we wish to explain to you how we see it working.
Our future
Eliminate 100% of our C02 emissions. To do this we rely on factors which are still being worked out across the industry, such as sustainable aviation fuels, improvements in technology and our own ability to replace our fleets with more efficient aircraft when possible.
WORKING TOGETHER TO REDUCE THE CO2 FOOTPRINT
Since October 2023, when buying a flight, Volotea passengers can voluntarily participate in the purchase of SAF by contributing €2 per passenger at the payment page.
OUR SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM VERIFIED BY BUREAU VERITAS
We continue to move towards the decarbonization of aviation, a key objective for the future of an industry that is essential for economic and social development. Bureau Veritas has verified our environmental statements as part of our Voloterra program, reinforcing our commitment to our reduction targets and transparency.
Voloterra is built upon five pillars
An efficient connectivity model
Volotea connects more than 110 cities all over Europe and does it through direct flights, without connections through other cities. According to our study, this avoids 68% of the extra flight time linked to connecting flights, which means less CO2 emissions from fuel consumption.
We maximize the occupancy of our scheduled flights and have registered an average load factor of over 90% since 2018. In 2023, 91% of seats were booked on our regular flights.
More than 93% of Volotea’s flights cannot be covered by train in less than 6 hours. Among our more than 400 routes, in 2024 only 1 can be covered by train in less than 4 hours (MAD-RMU).
Volotea plays a major role in European island connectivity. In summer 2023 (June to September), 56% of our regular flights were connections to islands like Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily or Mallorca, among other.
Reducing CO2 emissions per passenger-kilometer
We started the transition of our fleet from Boeing 717 aircraft in 2021 and upgraded to more sustainable and efficient Airbus 319 and 320 models, totaling over 40 aircraft.
Since we started flying in 2012, we have launched more than 50 initiatives to reduce the fuel consumption of our aircraft. By the end of 2023, these initiatives have helped to reduce CO2 emissions related to fuel burn per passenger-kilometer (RPK) by 46.2% (vs 2012).
We continue to make progress toward our goal of reducing direct CO2 emissions per passenger-kilometer by 50% by 2030 (vs 2012), and expect to achieve this target four to five years ahead of schedule.
Increase in the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
Volotea collaborates with manufacturers and the industry to support the development of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), so that these fuels can be further developed and generalized as soon as possible.
According to ICAO, SAF have the greatest potential to reduce CO2 emissions from international aviation (1) in the short and medium term. The SAF we use in our aircraft have around 90% less CO2 life-cycle emission vs. current fossil-based jet fuel.
In 2023, we have used 648,847 liters of SAF on our flights representing 0.21% of all our fuel burn, (the airline industry average for 2023 is 0.2% of total jet fuel demand (2)).
Moreover, we have operated Airbus’ internal Hamburg-Toulouse shuttle with a 12% SAF blend on average.
From 2022 to 2023, we have used more than 1 million liters of SAF on our flights.
We collaborate with several suppliers to promote the development of SAF, with agreements in place with Moeve (formerly CEPSA), Repsol, and Enilive in Italy.
(1) www.icao.int/environmental-protection/pages/SAF.aspx
(2) according to IATA https://www.iata.org/en/iata-repository/pressroom/fact-sheets/fact-sheet---alternative-fuels/?ref=wwf_fgn.
Innovation and development
We actively participate in industry forums and associations for the development of new technologies to operate with zero emissions.
In December 2022, we became investors in Dovetail Electric Aviation, a company making significant progress toward developing the first commercial electric aircraft.
Transparency and verification
This marks the third consecutive year Voloterra has passed the Bureau Veritas audit, confirming the program's measurable progress, our commitment to driving a more sustainable future in aviation, and the high standards of Voloterra, which are aligned with ISO 14064-3 specifications, an international standard for greenhouse gas emissions verification.
Voloterra is the first airline sustainability program to be audited and verified by Bureau Veritas for three consecutive years.
Each year, we produce our Annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report. This document, which constitutes our Statement of Non-Financial Information, represents our commitment to generating an impact beyond the income statement. All our reports have undergone a verification process by an independent provider, in accordance with Law 11/2018 on non-financial information and diversity.
You can consult them through the following links: VOLOTEA | Corporate Social Responsibility
