After deciding we’d visit Venice before my daughter started back to school, my wife decided that we ought to travel to the South of France next. After all, they’re pretty close!

But only one airline with a published schedule flies Venice – Nice, and only two days a week. That’s why I wound up flying Volotea, and it was the segment I was most excited about on this trip – a new airline, with an interesting business model!

I didn’t fancy the idea of a nine hour trip by train, and there are only two flights a week making the 282-mile journey. In-season European low cost carrier Volotea offers the trip on Thursdays and Sundays. (EasyJet takes over the route come September.) The seats were just €41.12. Everything else is optional fees (Ancillaries like seats, bags, ticket flexibility and pets drive over 40% of revenue at the airline).

I absolutely love an airline that knows who they are and knows what business they are in. Volotea is a low cost carrier. They are in the business of merchandising. They are aggressive about selling subscriptions. They are aggressive about sales, period, and that leads them to offer value in exchange. They’ll sell you a (pretty good) hot meal on a sub-300 mile flight.

Volotea started flying in April 2012. They operate 44 Airbus narrowbody planes across 110 airports and 450 routes. And they’re highly profitable with an 18% EBITDA margin.

They operate point-to-point connecting small and medium markets, avoiding major hubs and direct competiton with EasyJet, Ryanair, and Wizz Air.

• 70% of demand is leisure, peaking in summer. They match capacity to demand and keep winters profitable by pruning the schedule and leasing out spare aircraft and operating subsidized service. They deliberately capped growth this year due to high aircraft lease costs, and added wet leases for peak summer flying.

• They run multi‑base, quick‑turn operations. Their 22 small bases allow aircraft to start and end their day “at home” reducing positioning costs and overnight expenses.

• They add aggressive subscroption marketing onto their classic low cost carrier model. The Megavolotea club subcription offers discounts, free carry-on bag, and lower fees for extras. It’s an annual price, with autorenewal unless cancelled.

I actually sprung for Megavolotea Plus which runs €139.99 per year after a 15‑day free trial. You need it during booking and during travel to take advantage of all of its benefits so I didn’t just take the trial and cancel within 15 days. Instead, I worked out that across five seats and taking advantage of all the extras we’d need it was a pretty good deal – and I’d cancel after the flight.

• Flight discounts Up to €20 off every Volotea flight booked while a member (applies to each passenger on the same booking)
  
• Priority boarding + 10 kg cabin bag Board first, and bring a standard carry-on plus small personal item. They market that boarding first guarantees overhead bin space, but charging for carry-ons makes this largely a non-issue anyway.
  
• Seat discount 50% off pre‑reserved seats (standard, front row, extra‑legroom)
  
• Checked bag discount Up to 25 % off prepaid checked bag fees
  
• Unlimited free changes date/route changes for no fee up to 7 days prior to departure for just the fare difference
  
• Birthday credit €35 Volotea travel credit sent on your birthday – activate within 15 days, and use within 7 days of activation
  
• Companion benefits discounts apply to all passengers on the same PNR

Auto‑renewal needs to be disabled prior to the end of each year to avoid the next year’s charge. This is strong value for families and leisure travelers flying Volotea multiple times a year – but it maths for a group on a single trip paying for checked bags and seats and taking the flight discount even on the first booking.
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Volotea check-in opened two hours prior to departure, and we’d arrived 5 minutes before that. Staff were at the counter but not helping passengers until the assigned minute had arrived. We queued up behind a couple of passengers and were helped quickly.

Since bags were prepaid, and seats already assigned, the process was quick. Bear in mind that Volotea charges extra to print your boarding passes at the airport, so you want to do that yourself in advance.

Once bags were dropped we proceeded through security – there was a priority queue with no line for Amex Platinum and Mastercard cardholders. Surely some of the passengers in the regular security queue had a Mastercard, even though this is Europe?

And since this was a Schengen flight there was no passport control to deal with.

Once through we headed to the nearby Marco Polo lounge one level above the concourse (just past the duty free chute) and I’ll write about that separately. Like many European airports, the boarding gate isn’t announced until 20 minutes prior to scheduled boarding. That way they keep you from anchoring to your gate, more likely to shop and spend in the terminal. There was a departures board in the lounge, so it was easy to keep track of.

Then we headed down to our gate – boarding passes were checked, including for whether we had the right to bring a carry-on bag on the plane. Then we headed out to the bus.

After a long tour of the airport that felt like we were driving as long as we’d be flying (it was a short flight!) we arrived at the aircraft. They were boarding from stairs at both the front and back of the aircraft, to promote quick turns.

The flight wound up completely full. I did want the extra legroom of the bulkhead row, but opted against it because of lack of underseat storage (and having things at one’s fingertips can be helpful traveling with a one year old).

Seating was tight, but honestly fine for a one hour hop.

Menus for the flight were available, and honestly they were really impressive. I’d absolutely love it if American Airlines adopted their food for sale program. They even had hot items for purchase on this flight, and boy it’s convenient. It’s also a much better deal than American’s buy onboard – they get $16 for a cold sandwich, while Volotea gets 8.5 euros for a pasta or butter chicken dish. And Volotea’s food is better, too!

My son and daughter shared a pasta. It was..fine. But the butter chicken was outstanding. I wouldn’t say the rice was very good, but the chicken and sauce were quite a surprise on the upside. I had to buy it just for the novelty.

By the time we’d been served and eaten we were well into our descent. Though crew had already come around collecting trash, they told us no rush and to go ahead and finish our meal. Eveyone was friendly and helpful.

Deplaning was quick from row two, and straight onto a jetbridge. We were quickly at baggage claim. Baggage delivery wasn’t fast, but we were soon on our way.

Overall I’d gladly fly Volotea again. The staff were great. Overall value was fantastic. And they serve routes that connect cities no one else does. And I had lounge access thanks to Priority Pass.