British Airways stablemate Vueling will increase its Gatwick-Gran Canaria service to three-times-weekly this week, complementing its up to 16-times-weekly Gatwick-Malaga service and five-times-weekly Gatwick-Seville service.
The IAG-owner budget carrier will fly 14 routes from Gatwick this winter, along with another five from four other UK airports – Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester.
Vueling said expanding its winter sun schedule was core to its ongoing "deseasonalisation" strategy, which aims to spread its operations more evenly throughout the year, utilising destinations across Europe and the Med, as well as North Africa and the Middle East.
For winter 2023/24, Vueling will operate new Saturday routes to Luxor and Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, via Barcelona, as well as Amman in Jordan via Paris-Orly. It will also serve Rovaniemi in Finland, the gateway to Lapland, via Barcelona and Morocco’s Marrakech from Bilbao.
"The new winter schedule is part of the airline’s wider strategy to address seasonality challenges increasing the use of its fleet throughout the year," said Vueling.
In total, Vueling will fly 213 routes to 89 destinations across 27 countries this winter, 10 more routes than last winter. This includes 193 routes to and from Spain where the airline is headquartered.
Carolyn Prowse, Vueling’s commercial director responsible for strategy and route planning, added: "The winter schedule represents the company’s commitment to offer attractive international destinations all year round.
"For this new season, we are continuing to consolidate our leadership position in Spain and to reinforce our international commitment through London-Gatwick and Paris-Orly."
