Volotea is getting ready for summer 2021 and becomes a wholly Airbus company after retiring its Boeing 717s.

Volotea has been gradually phasing out its Boeing 717s and supplements its fleet with 15 to 19 Airbus A320 aircraft. The carrier has already purchased 15 and will buy the rest when the demand occurs. With Volotea stopping to operate the 717s, only three airlines in the world keep putting the jet into service: Delta, Hawaiian Airlines, and QantasLink.

”We will continue to grow thanks to our strategy of connecting small and medium-sized European cities with each other with a more modern and competitive aircraft model, the Airbus A320, which offers 20-25% lower operating costs than [our] previous Boeing 717s. This increased competitiveness will be highly needed in the post-Covid context of the coming years, where less demand is likely to occur,” said Volotea President Carlos Munoz in a statement.

The carrier had an astonishing 90.7% load factor in 2020, while other airlines were way behind. The traffic did fall by 49% overall, but efficient route planning and extensive domestic market opportunities allowed the airline to keep the flights full.