Spanish airline Volotea has announced it is to shut down its base in Athens, Greece at the end of the summer of 2025. The move will end six years of based operations for the carrier at Athens International Airport (ATH) although the budget airline will continue flying into and out of the airport through services offered from other cities on the current Volotea network.

The announcement came as a surprise to many as the carrier has been steadily expanding its network from Athens and broadening its profile in the Greek market over recent years. The airline provides direct flights from Athens to 16 different locations across Europe with the launch of new all-year-round flights to Marseille and Lyon from Athens in 2023 contributing to Volotea’s continuing growth in Athens. In 2024, the carrier also added a range of new European destinations such as Naples, Brest, and Split from the airport.

Greece had been the smallest of Volotea’s 21 bases in 2024, equating to just 0.7% of its scheduled weekly capacity. More than 90% of the airline’s scheduled weekly capacity is focused on routes to airports in France, Italy, and Spain. Only in early 2024, the airline unveiled plans to increase its capacity from Athens by 13% compared to 2023 and to offer more than 1.6 million seats across Greece for the year.

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