Volotea announced its offering for the summer 2025 season from Palermo (PMO), Italy, adding two new destinations: Bilbao (BIO), Spain, and Heraklion (HER), Greece, strengthening its presence in Sicily while now connecting to the Basque Country and the island of Crete.
Specifically, the Palermo-Bilbao route will be operational starting April 12, 2025, with two weekly flights (Tuesdays and Saturdays), offering over 20,500 seats. This marks the first Spanish destination that Volotea offers from Palermo. The connection with Heraklion, however, will be available from July 8, 2025, to August 26, with a weekly flight (Tuesdays) and a capacity of 2,880 seats for sale.
Bilbao will be the fifth Spanish city with flights from Palermo, joining connections to Barcelona (Ryanair and Vueling), Madrid (Iberia and Ryanair), Palma de Mallorca (EasyJet), and Valencia (Ryanair).
Volotea prepares to close a year marked by growth in Palermo
Volotea highlighted its strong performance in Palermo between January and October 2024. According to the airline, it carried over 443,000 passengers (+15% compared to 2023) on 2,800 flights (+15%) with a capacity of 481,000 seats (+15%). Its load factor reached 92%, and during the peak activity period, it employed 42 people at Falcone e Borsellino Airport.
By the end of 2024, the company projects reaching 501,000 passengers, a 16% increase compared to the previous year, with nearly 3,200 flights and a total capacity of 543,000 seats.
“Palermo represents a very important city for our growth objectives: here we opened our second Italian operational base in March 2013, and since then, we have consistently confirmed our commitment locally. To date, we can say we have transported a total of more than 5.2 million passengers to Palermo, and we obviously do not intend to stop here,” said Valeria Rebasti, Volotea’s International Market Director.
According to the Cirium platform, Volotea’s busiest period in Palermo will be July and August, connecting it to 17 destinations:
- Spain: Bilbao.
- France: Brest, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Lille, Lourdes, Lyon, Nantes, and Toulouse.
- Greece: Athens, Heraklion, Thira, and Zakynthos.
- Italy: Florence, Naples, Olbia, and Verona.
This season, Ancona, Deauville, Nice, and Turin will not be featured. Instead, Venice will operate from December to January.