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Vueling increases up to 50 aircraft at El Prat and includes 14 new routes from Barcelona

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13-Nov-2013 Vueling presents once again its growth plans in its headquarters, Barcelona, with the addition of seven new Airbus A320 to its fleet based at the Catalan airport. The airline will operate with 50 aircraft from El Prat where a total of 117 new routes will be reached with direct flights - 14 new ones plus the incorporation of Paris-Charles de Gaulle - and where the airline will offer close to 12 million seats, a 14% increase compared to last year.

The new destinations for next summer will be Bastia - Corsica (France), Krakow (Poland), Donetsk and Kharkov (Ukraine), Kaliningrad and Kazan (Russia) and Tunisia which will join the already announced Porto, Warsaw, Jerez, Leipzig, Dakar, Budapest and Belgrade, some of them never before operated from the Catalan airport. With these additions, in summer 2014 El Prat will become the first airport in Europe with more short and medium haul destinations operated by its main airline.

For the fifth consecutive year since its merger, Vueling remains in the path of profitable growth by adding value from the economic revitalization point of view, both directly, with about 300 new hirings, and indirectly becoming a key factor within the tourism industry in Barcelona and Catalonia, where Vueling has been the leading airline.

Germany, former USSR countries and Africa, listed according to priority
Germany is without any doubt the market where Vueling will be focusing its efforts throughout 2014. Two years after introducing new routes as Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Nuremberg in the summer of 2012 and last year's Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Dresden, Hanover and Stuttgart - in 2014 Vueling adds Leipzig as the eleventh German city. The airline will be offering a total of 1.5 million seats on routes between Barcelona and Germany, 30% more compared to last year.

On the other hand, Vueling has been working in a moderate yet steady way since before the merger with the Russian market as well as with the countries from the former USSR. This strategy started with the first flights leaving Barcelona towards Moscow and St. Petersburg in high season and thanks to the good results they have become regular routes operated throughout the year. Last summer, the company incorporated Kiev (Ukraine) and Minsk (Belarus) as destinations from El Prat. Such routes will be maintained also during the next 2014 summer season and along with the addition of four new routes as Donetsk and Kharkov (Ukraine), Kaliningrad and Kazan (Russia) will offer over 700,000 seats among the three countries. The development in these markets also aims at providing new connections to Spanish destinations such as Malaga, Alicante and Majorca.

Vueling significantly increases the connectivity of the African continent with Barcelona this summer by presenting two new routes to Tunisia and Dakar with which the company reaches 10 direct routes. The first route to kick off was between Barcelona and Marrakech in July 2009, and the great expansion took place last summer with the addition of seven new routes to Fez, Nador, Tangier and Casablanca in Morocco, Algiers and Oran in Algeria and Banjul in Gambia. The increase in the seats´ offer in 2014 is around 48%, with a range of almost 300,000 seats on sale.

The new base: Brussels
From May 1st on, Brussels will become the fourth operating base in Europe after Amsterdam, Rome and Florence. The airline will launch seven new direct routes from the Belgian capital to Rome-Fiumicino, Venice, Lisbon, Porto, Santiago de Compostela, Ibiza and Majorca. Vueling increases its offer by 100% in the European capital with new destinations and increased frequencies on routes that are already being operated.

Constant growth in connecting passengers via Barcelona
During 2013 Vueling has established its third consecutive year of expansion with its connecting flights via Barcelona-El Prat airport, where it has reached over 100 direct destinations direct last summer. This year four million passengers have connected flights via Barcelona. A number that is expected to expand even more in 2014 as the origin-destination combinations will broaden up to 4,000 options, thanks to the 117 routes operated from El Prat.